yorgos lanthimos on the autonomy
of
photos On the event of Yorgos Lanthimos: Photos, an exhibit curated by Michael Mack, on view at Onassis Stegi in Athens from March 7th to May 17th, 2026, the filmmaker offered an abnormally candid reflection on his progressing relationship with the still image. Known globally for the particular cinematic universes of movies such as Dogtooth, The Favourite, and Poor Things, Lanthimos discusses the autonomy of photography, a medium that has significantly shaped his innovative practice over the previous few years.
Among the repeating styles throughout the press conference conversation was the sense of self-reliance photography uses compared to the collaborative machinery of filmmaking. Cinema requires teams, budget plans, schedules, and the orchestration of numerous aspects, while photography can emerge from a much simpler encounter with the world.
‘You can be alone, with an electronic camera in your hand, and you can walk,’ Lanthimos says, explaining the basic gesture that typically begins his photographic procedure. In that minute, the medium sheds the expectations connected to narrative production. ‘You do not require to have something specific in your mind,’ he continues ‘You do not require to have in mind that you have to do something with it eventually. This is liberty.’
all images by Yorgos Lanthimos, unless specified otherwise from film school strategy to photographic practice For Lanthimos, photography did not start as an intentional artistic pursuit but rather as a technical necessity.’ You immediately discover in film school that cinema is 24 frames per 2nd,’he discusses during the conversation.’So technically you have to discover photography first.’ At the time, his aspiration was firmly directed toward cinema, and photography worked as a foundational skill rather than a location in itself.
‘I didn’t know from the start that I would be so interested in photography,’ he confesses. Initially, the still image existed only as preparation for filmmaking, something to master before proceeding to what he considered the genuine goal. Yet the relationship in between the two mediums gradually shifted. Dealing with movies indicated continuously returning to the video camera as a tool of observation, and with time that technical familiarity changed into something more individual. ‘Gradually, through the procedure of cinema, which required photography anyhow, but also provided me another way out throughout the development of film, I began to enjoy it much more,’ he includes.
the show combines four bodies of work produced over the previous five years a medium of possibilities The still image, he recommended, runs according to a different temporal logic. Unlike cinema, which must eventually resolve itself into an ended up sequence, photography enables meaning to stay open. A picture can exist independently or become part of a larger collection of images, altering its significance depending on context. ‘A photograph can have a worth,’ he reflects, before expanding on the concept. ‘Then many together can have another worth and another importance.’
This flexibility reaches the lots of forms photography can take after the moment of capture. A single image may appear in a book, an exhibit, or another series altogether, each time generating a somewhat various interpretation. For Yorgos Lanthimos, this fluidity is precisely what distinguishes the medium from movie theater’s repaired story structures.
‘The truth that photography can make a book, you can present it in an exhibition, you can do different things in the exhibition, another narrative,’ he describes. ‘In general, a terrific flexibility in relation to the practice of photographing something.’ This technique to sequencing discovers a concrete kind in VISCIN, a photobook introduced alongside the exhibition. Designed as a leporello fold that unfolds like a strip of movie, the publication assembles photographs taken on the set and places of Bugonia into a constant visual series.
Even the simplest image can oscillate between intricacy and simplicity depending on the viewer’s encounter with it. Some photographs consist of layers of tonal or visual intricacy, while others resonate through their peaceful directness. ‘There are certain images that I think are really intricate, tonally intricate, visually complex,’ the Greek filmaked notes. ‘There are others that are really simple, that for some factor there’s some affinity to them.’
consisting of images made on the sets of Poor Things, Type Of Kindness, and Bugonia the tactile experience of pictures Another element that Yorgos Lanthimos emphasized during the press conference was the physical dimension of analogue photography.
In an
period dominated by digital blood circulation, the act of producing a photographic item remains deeply meaningful to him.’You can go for a walk, take a roll of movie, go home, print 2 pictures, hold them in your hand and look at them,’he says, describing the nearly ceremonial complete satisfaction of the procedure. The immediacy of producing a tangible image contrasts greatly with the extended timelines of filmmaking, where months or years might pass before the work reaches an audience.‘The fulfillment is great and immediate,’ he includes, recommending that the tactile relationship with the picture, the print, the paper, even the smell of the materials, ends up being an essential part of the experience.
within these images, Lanthimos moves in between subjects memory as a single image Possibly the most revealing minute of the conversation came when Lanthimos was asked about early visual memories. His reaction moved the conversation toward the much deeper connection between photography and the method people remember their lives. ‘I have a terribly bad memory,’ he states with deactivating honesty. Yet regardless of that admission, he understood something unexpected while reviewing the concern. The pieces that stay from childhood do not appear as sequences of occasions but rather as isolated images.‘My memories are generally simply single images,’ he describes. The observation led him to a wider awareness about the relationship between memory and photography itself. ‘Every crucial thing in my life is an image,’ he states, acknowledging how the still frame appears to mirror the structure of recollection.
This sensitivity to the power of separated minutes runs throughout the pictures provided in the exhibit at Onassis Stegi. The program brings together four bodies of work produced over the past five years, including images made on the sets of Poor Things, Type Of Kindness, and Bugonia, together with a new and continuous series photographed in Greece. Within these images, Yorgos Lanthimos moves between topics: people, landscapes, animals, fragments of architecture, or everyday scenes encountered during singular walks. Each subject, he suggested, brings the potential for story without necessarily requiring one.
‘Each has its own meaning,’ the filmmaker shares. A structure, a face, or an animal can all hold equivalent narrative weight depending on the method they are framed and presented. Yet the photo ultimately exposes as much about the audience as it does about the subject itself.
portrait of Vyronas, Yorgos Lanthimos’canine Emma Stone on set the sensitivity to the power of isolated moments runs throughout the images on view people, landscapes, animals, fragments of architecture, or everyday scenes are the protagonists in Yorgos Lanthimos’ images
the exhibition is on view at Onassis Stegi in Athens from March 7th to Might 17th, 2026 182 images produced over the past five years form the exhibit photo taken on the set of Poor Things
installation view of Lanthimos
‘ photography exhibit|image © Margarita Yoko Nikitaki for Onassis
Stegi
pictures captured throughout walks around Athens and the Greek islands|image © Margarita Yoko Nikitaki for Onassis Stegi project info: name: Yorgos Lanthimos: Photographs professional photographer: Yorgos Lanthimos|@_yorgos_lanthimos_location: Onassis Stegi|@onassis. stegi, Athens, Greece dates: March 7th– May 17th, 2026 manager: Michael Mack