Bittersweet Apple
For Bittersweet Apple I spent two years between 2011-2013 exploring the Greek-American diaspora in Astoria, New York, a diverse setting that was once the center of Hellenism in North America. Moving to America was a matter of family business and not a personal choice and this fact developed a sense of identity loss. As a youngster, I resented being there and during my first visit decades before my recent encounter to revisit and photograph for this project I often tried to find ways to escape and move back to Greece, unsuccessfully of course considering I was a teenager with not much going on at the time. During my wanderings withing the public and private spaces everything seemed foreign to me, even the people who shared my own heritage. I felt a powerful sense of disconnection and isolation within the glory of the metropolis. When everyone’s dream was to live in New York City my dream was to move back to Athens. My friends, my extended family, the old neighborhood near the Parthenon circulated my mind 24/7. What I expected to be familiar during my first visit to the States was actually quite unfamiliar, regardless of the reminders of Greek culture the area offered. I often said that there are Greeks here, but they were not “my” Greeks. The images from this project aspire to establish a new bond with this unique neighborhood, exploring both the remnants of Greek culture but also the layers of diversity that exist and make up the character of Astoria. I perceived the process to be a cathartic experience and the photographic medium the vessel towards assimilation which at times was successful and at other times failed to satisfy.
