Observing

A winter day in Ios

The cancellation of a ship departure sometimes is a good thing; it means that you get to spend another day in an island like Ios: take a long ride around the island where you can’t help but become an observer to the alternating images that light creates to the land, sea and sky.

Only in an island, you can experience that kind of cinemascope wide-eyed gaze of nature images. Visiting the mainland, you start noticing the changes of the light on the round church domes. Then, you turn your head to the catch the source of the light and see that the sun that is already hidden behind the clouds. In one minute, the clouds are on their way to another island, there is a tempest in the open sea and you have sun again. You move to the other side of the island, where the sea is calm like a lake and you hear the small birds chirping instead of the seagull’s screams and the wind blowing. It’s like a play, a composition of pictures and sounds that have an effect to the few people that have the chance to watch it: the shepherd, the faceless people at the Yiannis Gaitis museum and the photographer whose ferry was cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

PS. Thanks to our friend Artemis Denaxas for his help and the beautiful winter “ride” at Ios island.

words by maria alipranti

photography by christos drazos