Soul of Greece in Pictures of Nikos Aliagas

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Nikos Aliagas is a clean-cut TV presenter in France and a well-known personality himself, has worked for years in front of the lens, but his real passion lies in taking photos. “Photography’s gratifying to me because I know the price of being exposed, and I prefer to be behind the camera, it’s a hobby for me,” he says.

The French-Greek entertainer loves taking photographs in his native Greece. He finds a country full of poetry and beauty even in the midst of crisis.

‘The fisherman come home silently. Whether his nets are full or empty, he loves the sea. One does not judge Thalassa, one loves her for what she gives or what she keeps. Words do not bring out fishes; words are not gods’

‘A summer in August perfumed with cotton candy and jasmine. It’s the feast of the local saint. Children dream in front of street vendor carts offering glittering little nothings. And also in front of the stands of loukoumades, the local doughnuts’

Around his career in France as a TV presenter, Nikos Aliagas has photographed his native Greece at a time of crisis. He introduces each image, pairing this first one with a quote from Alphonse de Lamartine: ‘There is no man more accomplished than that traveled man, who changed 20 times the shape of his thinking and his life’• The exhibition Greek Soul is atPhoto12 Galerie in Paris, until 18 September.

‘The hands of the old man were looking for the words that his memory had forgotten. His words that his hands were rediscovering. The poems of his youth’

‘She was travelling on her own. She was looking for the small island that she had not seen in many years. The Aegean Sea was stormy but she did not care, the most important thing was to come. The possibility of an island’