DEAR KAIROS, - Simon Bray
April 2023
16.5x24 cm
128 pages
Swiss Binding + Gold Hotfoil
ISBN 978-88-94895-65-0
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Text by Simon Bray
Designed by Milo Montelli and Simon Bray
WINNER OF THE FE+SK BOOK AWARD 2023
Created over two weeks on the streets of Athens, ‘Dear Kairos’ is a letter to the Ancient Greek considerations of time. The viewer is invited to consider the Kronos, the linear, mechanistic and determined passing of clock and calendar time, and the Kairos, serendipitous, opportunistic and boundless time. Through the use of repeated scenes and careful sequencing, ‘Dear Kairos’ asks the viewer to consider moments loaded with significance that can be pushed through and embraced in order to distinguish, as Frank Kermode writes, “between mere chronicity and times which are concordant and full”, avoiding that which is fixed and easy to categorize, instead looking to embrace a boundless lack of beginning or ending.
“The Kairos moments of serendipity and fantasy are an invitation to embrace that which errs on the less distinguishable. We cannot plan or know what the creative outcome will be, we may not even have the language to describe it beforehand, but the act of photography allows not only for the images to take the shape of their author but for the practice of making them to influence the photographer. If you remove the necessity for the images to be perfect, the subconscious is allowed to breathe, the images free to honestly reflect our imperfect and incomplete inner selves.” - Simon Bray
The book is made in collaboration with Fotografia Europea
Technical Partner: Longo Media
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU LIVRE 2023 ARLES