Greece

"September probably wasn’t the best time to go probing into the islanders’ souls. Spring would no doubt have been better. Before the migratory flow of summer. They seemed a little worn out, hence a visible sluggishness. I painted few portraits even though usually, I prefer people to their environment. Perhaps I found the explanation in a passage from Kavvadias’ novel The Shift where he places these words in the mouth of a Chinese character: 'How is that white people, whose effigies are engraved on old gold pieces, on vases, or sculpted in marble, don’t at all resemble the men who live in Europe today?

But if you take the oldest Chinese coin, you’ll find my faithful portrait on it.' Like this Chinese man, perhaps I didn’t find the Greeks to look much like I expected them to.

But autumn surrounds the islands with its finest background light. Here, eyes are above all drawn by the majesties of nature and captured by Cycladic architecture that, on the other hand, conforms exactly to preconceived ideas. And do you know the word for “painter” in modern Greek? Geographikos…"

Extract from Les îles grecques, 2002, Éditions Gallimard