Swan Lake. "Artist and Model II" series

Maiofis's works are not like photographs in the usual sense: his works are blurred, often assembled from several layers of images. Like moments of awareness, they seem to flicker in the field of vision, soft, fuzzy, with indeterminate boundaries. Here, Maiofis once again challenges photographic representation and adds another layer of meaning, creating images with mimetic and painterly qualities. He achieves this by using the bromoil printing process, a method borrowed from another era, invented and widely used in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

It all starts with an image taken with a camera and lens, so the prints using the bromoil technology belong to photographic images. At the same time, they are processed manually, and through bleaching and tinting, they turn into something else, tactile and elusive. Because the artist controls the amount of paint applied to the surface of the matrix, he can lighten or darken certain areas. The paint is applied manually, so brush marks and other signs of the artist's presence may be visibIt all starts with an image taken with a camera and lens, so the prints using the bromoil technology belong to photographic images. At the same time, they are processed manually, and through bleachiand tinting, they turn into something else, tactile and elusive. Because the artist controls the amount of paint applied to the surface of the matrix, he can lighten or darken certain aras. The paint is applied manually, so brush marks and other signs of the artist's presence may be visible.

If bromoil is a modified, and some would say a distorted version of traditional photography, then it also represents a modified version of photographic reality. This altered reality is a significant object in itself. In the hands of Mayophis, bromoil acquires a hypnotic, dreamlike quality that defies time and space, being a thing in itself.

Text: Philip Roger.