In Waiting
In Waiting is an examination of the city Athens and its role as a physical stage for the economic crisis. Primarily, I am exploring the interiors of government buildings, institutions, and schools to question how these spaces reflect modern Greek culture and character. The locations I chose are familiar microcosms for Athenians that have now become the public stage for a forced re-negotiation of Greek identity. I am trying to personally rationalize how the deceptively tedious components of urban life factor into the economic crisis. I am specifically attracted to the kitsch aesthetic and surreal atmosphere I encounter in these spaces. These interiors also reveal an almost antiquated and bare aesthetic quality; they evoke in their décor a feeling of dependency on and idolization of the past. Spaces, which once seemed banal or unimportant, now reveal nuances of Greek reality and have social and political implications. Like the Greek people, these places exist in anticipation of their future.
About the photographer
Eirini Vourloumis was born and raised in Athens, Greece and is of Greek and Indonesian background. Vourloumis is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She began her career as a contributing photographer for the New York Times Metro section and is currently freelancing for various international publications from Greece, focusing on covering the ongoing economic crisis. She has also contributed as a writer for Lens, the New York Times photojournalism blog. Her current personal work has shifted from pure reportage and combines a documentary and conceptual photographic approach, in which she explores social and political environments to reflect their dynamic within the context of the economic crisis in her home country. Photo Booth of the New Yorker recognized Vourloumis as an Emerging Photographer in 2014. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, Le Monde, Business Week, and The Guardian, among others.
