Eugenie Coumantaros
Beyond White

This ‘little Greece’ that one finds in remote island churches on rocky mountain footpaths is what Eugenie Coumantaros depicted in her collection of forty photographs entitled Beyond White, which were exhibited at the Museum of Cycladic Art.

Eugenie Coumantaros studied English Literature and Photography at Princeton University and has been photographing since 1989. Through her lens, she called upon viewers to recollect their own experiences while seeing the quintessential Aegean chapel in a new light.

The contemporary rendering of these abstract photographs captures the ‘breath of an eternal faith’ in a unique and ethereal way, simply and stunningly. White chapels. Temple, sacred space. Shadows on white, colored light; choices in the frame create a balance between light and shadow such that simple architectural forms converse with the sea, with the sky, with the air. The viewer – depending on his individual experiences and his mood – would discern the variations in the hues of light and take a spiritual journey ‘Beyond White’.

*Odysseus Elytis, Idiotiki Odos