Andreas Papadopoulos
Greek videomaker
Interview: 10questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
I was born in Berlin but grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece. I began my studies in photography and video at Pythagoras Institute in Thessaloniki and later continued my studies at Photography Circle in Athens and at FAMU in Prague. I completed my Master of Arts in Photography in London College of Communication in 2005. I currently live in London.
2. When, how and why started you filming?
Although I come from a photography educational background, I always had great respect and admiration for other art mediums and many film artists and directors were among my key influences. I started experimenting with video in 2007 when I felt photography was limited for some of my projects. Since then the elements of moving image and sound became necessary for my work.
3. What kind of subjects have your films?
While being concerned with understanding and describing human experience and the contemporary landscape, my video works intentionally avoid clear messages and a linear narrative as a body of measurable information. On the contrary, I prefer to examine the medium’s intrinsic possibilities to develop narrative forms that function as an open-ended synthesis of images and sounds which are conceived and treated as autonomous values.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
There is always a starting point, a filmic structure that I have in mind but then when I begin filming on the specific locations I let the work grow in a more experiential way.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
I work with a Panasonic DVX-100.
6. The field of “art and moving images†(one may call it video art or also differently) is manifesting itself as an important position in contemporary art. Tell me more about your personal position and how you see the future of this field (your personal future and the future of “art and moving imagesâ€)
In contrast with the use of a text that explains an image and of sensationalism that have been adopted by a major part of the arts and culture industry, there are many artists nowadays who experiment with the multilayered nature of moving image itself. It seems like all this accumulation of certified information, whether in the form of a sterile realistic documentary or in the form of a conceptual body of information, has led a part of contemporary artists away from the application of governing messages and towards a more personal moving image making, which is to be experienced by the viewer rather than analyzed.
7. How do you finance your films?
I am self financed.
8. Do you work individually as a video artist/film maker or do you work in a team?
If you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
I work individually while filming and editing the work.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
I have been inspired by artists of all mediums. My key influences are coming from film, photography, painting and literature and by some of the teachers I had throughout my educational years. Last but not least, people, locations and everyday situations I come across with become influential elements for my work.
10. What are your plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
At the moment, I have been trying as much as I can financially afford to evolve video works in different places in Europe. The theme of people’s relationship to space and landscape itself through the process of detailed observation is my main objective.