Open Theme nominee

The images are from the project Someplace / Not Here / Still There, But Not. The work explores what it means to move through the world without a stable sense of belonging. Shot in hotel rooms, city streets, and other liminal spaces, the series observes moments of isolation, pause, and disconnection across both private and public environments. Bodies appear partially, anonymously, or not at all; spaces carry the weight of presence even when no one is visible.

The work attends to states of being — moments where movement slows, contact hesitates, and orientation becomes uncertain. It reflects the solitude of contemporary life, a solitude that is no longer exceptional but increasingly shared. In a world shaped by constant movement and surface connection, the images point to a quiet dislocation: the feeling of being present without fully arriving or belonging.

Each photograph holds the trace of something that has passed through — a body, a gesture, a moment of attention. What remains is not resolution but recognition: the sense of being somewhere, but not here. Still there — but not. More images available at www.ymkollective.com/somewhere-someplace.

Yiorgos Michael is a visual artist and poet whose work explores themes of identity, aging, belonging, and the fragile architecture of presence. Working at the intersection of post-documentary and conceptual photography, he constructs emotionally charged image sequences that blur the boundary between metaphor and memory. His photographic practice combines portraiture, performance, and spatial symbolism. Often, he stages quiet, resonant moments within transient or intimate environments—hotel rooms, thresholds, and unremarkable corners where solitude becomes theatrical. His visual language draws on the atmospheric subtlety of Pictorialism, the experimental abstraction of László Moholy-Nagy, the introspective emotionality of Francesca Woodman and Duane Michals, and the oblique psychological framing of Sergio Larraín.

In parallel with his visual work, Yiorgos writes bilingual poetry in Greek and English, echoing the same emotional, philosophical, and spatial concerns found in his photographs. Across both mediums, he investigates the unseen: absence, fragmentation, ritual, and the tension between disappearance and visibility.