Most photographs of birds are taken in flight, using a zoom lens to bring them closer to view. They usually have the sky as background and the photographer, be they a scientist or bird watcher, tends to be an admirer of the animal species blessed with the ability to fly. By contrast, the birds in Nikos Markou’s photographs are captured using fixed focal length (non-zoom) lenses, against a background of tree foliage. The birds are rarely seen to fly. Instead, they hide amongst the branches, far off in the distance, barely visible, tiny. It is a simulation of how we look at birds in real life; although in reality, stepping closer to them would set them off flying, here they stand still, accurately within focus, in high resolution, waiting for us.

As viewers, we make them out, walk up to them, then step back once again. And for a brief moment, we identify with these small, vulnerable souls; these singers of the ephemeral; these defiers of gravity. Markou’s images swell with the promise of flying; they preach the word of lightness. As human activity on the planet disrupts the life of the natural world, leading more and more species to extinction, the allusion to joy, beauty and freedom that birds represent may perhaps aid in prompting a re-evaluation, an act of re-investing in what is precious yet being lost. If Markou’s guileless photographs are also useful, it is precisely because of that. (Text by Panos Kokkinias)