The Splitting of the Chrysalis & the Slow Unfolding of the Wings arose from Greek photographer Yorgos Yatromanolakis's unforeseen return to his homeland. "Isolated in the countryside of the island of Crete," he writes. "Ι was constantly confronted with my traumatic past, my memories and myself. Gradually, through wandering in nature, a conceivable field of action was created within me, an intermediate space full of transformative dynamics, a place of becoming. I surrendered to the fluidity of this space, to a paradoxical and cosmogenic ceremony. I was faced with the most enigmatic aspects of myself; I was searching for a new reality in which I would be able to exist. These photographs are part of a notebook, constructed through this experience, attempting to capture the cycle of an internal process of metamorphosis."
The following text accompanies the series:
I returned back to the same place. I felt lost.
Within a strange tranquillity, something destructive arose inside me.
I had sunk into a quiet desperation. I denied my past.
I tried a hundred times to erase my memory. I was craving change.
Flowing into the night, I became a wild animal.
I confronted nature and death. I wanted to live. Feel every moment.
Walk against the whistling wind. Breathe and dive into the cold sea.
Harvest moon. Everything caught in the fire.
I walked with her in the blue dusk. Following my heartbeat.
I lapsed into a transformation, an unexpected alignment with the stars.
