About
Archaeological photography
When looking at a photograph of the past, the last thing to cross one’s mind is the photograph as a piece of art. Instead, it rarely registers that you are, in fact, viewing two artefacts simultaneously - the object depicted and the contemporary photograph that captured it. The archaeological photographer initiates a genuine dialogue with art of the past - trying to discretely capture their presence while illuminating each object’s story and place in history.
These artefacts can become powerful windows into the past which, when given a contemporary perspective, can promote communication, understanding, and deep appreciation between civilisations diachronically.
Every single time I begin a project, I become part of a team. I consider the people I work for, my partners and colleagues, as collaborators attempting to address the same challenge as I. Together we try to determine the most effective approach to each scenario, pooling our experiences and opinions in order to elicit as much accurate evidence as possible from every object, every opportunity.
short CV
Orestis Kourakis is a professional photographer specialising in the field of Computational Archaeological Photography. He is PhD candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens studying color identification techniques on archaeological objects, researcher scholar at the International Hellenic University and has received his Master’s degree in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design (GA, USA) with honors. In 2012, Orestis was selected for the Fulbright Scholarship for Artists as a Visiting Scholar to Columbia University (NY), internationally introducing his creation of an interactive online platform for Ancient Greek and Roman collections. He collaborates with leading museums and art institutions around the globe and in 2011 was selected by the Louvre Museum as the exclusive photographer for their exquisite 2011-2012 exhibit “Ancient Macedonia, the Kingdom of Alexander the Great” at the Louvre (Paris, France).
In addition to conventional photography, Orestis continues to develop new innovative techniques, special software, and specialised robotic systems while exploring fields such as aerial orthophotogrammetry, 3D reconstruction, and Augmented Reality.
Orestis has conducted photography workshops at Harvard University, Columbia University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and University of Granada Graduate Program as well as an extensive series of lectures on Archaeological Photography throughout Europe and the USA. He teaches Photography at the American College of Thessaloniki, Greece (2010-present) and the International Hellenic University (2014-present). Orestis’ photographs have been published in more than 100 catalogs, books, scientific journals, and newspapers worldwide. Many of his papers have been published in proceedings of international conferences and exhibition catalogs. He has presented his artistic work in over 30 exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
Collaborations
Testimonials
Thanks to his expertise in archaeological photography, Orestis was selected to be the unique photographer for the Greek part of our exhibition’s catalogue Au royaume d’ Alexandre le Grand. La Macédoine antique. He is focusing on providing comprehensive and informative data to support the study of the ancient world.
Orestis has developed new and exciting techniques to create arresting images of both archaeological sites and ancient works of art. He provided the photographs that were used for the cover design of the exhibition catalogue, Ennion: Master of Roman Glass New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Orestis is able to make even the most mundane and worn archaeological objects shine like the Derveni Krater.
8 years of excellent cooperation at all levels. In addition to the high quality of his photographs, it is worth pointing out Mr. Kourakis' continued willingness to experiment with new methods, in order to meet the high demands of the combination of scientific documentation and appealing presentation.
Orestis’ pioneering methodology on the RTI technique in conjunction with his innovative robotic systems reveal details that could not have been brought to light otherwise. Several Siphnian inscriptions, among which the famous epigram of Croesus from Thebes, would have been a defective text without Orestis.
Orestis produced thousands of beautiful photographs of selected objects from our collection, which allow users to virtually manipulate the objects, viewing them from all different angles and zooming in to see the finest details. He also delivered a terrific lecture, explaining his photographic innovations at museums in Europe and the US.
Selected book covers
Scientific publications, photo albums and books of archeology host on their cover my photos of archeological objects and monuments.
