Dimitri Mellos
A (psychologist) photographer interested in the world, not in himself
“My involvement in both photography and psychology is grounded in a deep-seated curiosity,
an insatiable interest in other people and what makes them tick.”
Dimitri Mellos was born in Athens, Greece, but since 2005 has been living in New York City. He studied philosophy and psychology. As a child, he used to walk around with an old Kodak Instamatic camera (with no film loaded), pretending to be taking pictures. He rediscovered his passion for photography many years later. He is a self-taught photographer who works mainly on long-term, self-initiated projects. His work has been exhibited and collected internationally and has garnered several prestigious awards and accolades, including being a Finalist for the Magnum Expression Award and the Visura Grant, and a Juror’s Pick at the Lensculture Magnum Photography Awards. In 2019, he was one of 16 photographers featured in the anthology volume Masters of Street Photography (UK, Ammonite Press).
John Szarkowski said of Garry Winogrand that “his ambition was not to make good pictures, but through photography to know life”. This statement perfectly describes Dimitri’s photographic aspirations as well.
Group Exhibition
The purpose of this exhibition is to show the work of the whole Progressive Street Gang – a diverse collection of photographers from around the world – which is not exclusively a group of street photographers but a group of photographers across the board. Talking about styles and differences in techniques and approaches is boring and not even very useful, because what counts in photography is sincerity. For this reason, I have chosen to couple images, a kind of shot – reverse-shot, freely interpreted. As in life, there is a glance and a counter-glance that gives depth to everything and every event, so this conceptual escamotage helped me to select photos that when put together managed to create a story and provoke thought, whilst showing at the same time the peculiarities of the various photographers. Batsceba Hardy ]
Winners of the Street Photography Awards 2021: Street photography captures everyday life in a public place. It tells us the story of people differently depending on the time and place.
Series Winner Dimitri Mellos shares his photography of strangers in the streets of New York City. Serendipity, evanescence, and deep respect for and affirmation of the world are the elements essential to his photography approach. He seeks glimpses of the transcendence in the mundane of the photos that depict most people's lives. His photographs are relics of a momentary merging of photographer and environment, subject and object.
Check out other photographs of winners and finalists over at the Street Photographer.
Dimitri Mellos at Caelum Gallery, NYC
New Yorkers and their doggies
Central Park, NYC, 2021
New Yorkers and their doggies. MOMA, NYC, 2018.
A photo that could have been great if framed just slightly differently, but is now more or less a failure. Posting to show how a very small difference in framing can make a huge difference to the end result.
NEW YORK NEW YORK
“After I moved here, it took me almost a year and a half to actually start taking pictures…street photography for me is something that’s emotionally very difficult and challenging to do. It takes some kind of courage to walk out in the street and take photos of strangers. Part of the style I’m trying to pursue, is something that balances form and content… to make the photograph interesting. It is something that develops organically….Partly because of the architecture, the layout of the grid (of NYC), I discovered deep blacks and shadows and the deep contrast between highlights and shadows, just because of how the city works and how you have those areas of sunlight, and next to that you might have a patch of darkness.”
CHINA
