The first encounter with the work of Gerasimos Kouvaras inevitably evokes an association with the classic photograph by Brassaï, where a cyclist pauses in front of a gigantic poster of Marlene Dietrich in Paris. That image, emblematic in the history of photography, does not merely document an everyday scene but encapsulates the dynamic relationship between human beings and the urban environment: the way in which the city and its inhabitants share the role of protagonist within the visual field.

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In contrast to this human-centered approach, Gerasimos Kouvaras, in his series Transit Encounters, shifts the gaze toward contemporary international airports, quintessential spaces of transition and global mobility. Here, human presence is neither idealized nor individualized; instead, it is rendered as a shadow, a fleeting form, or a blurred figure crossing a space dominated by giant billboards and gleaming surfaces. The movement of bodies, depersonalized and stripped of narrative, operates as a visual counterpoint to the static yet imposing images of advertisements.

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Kouvaras’ photographic approach introduces a conscious distancing from realism and the documentary tradition of urban photography. Unlike Brassaï or other classic photographers, he is not interested in portraying humans as the protagonists of the city but in exploring how human presence is transformed and absorbed within an ultramodern, globalized environment. As the artist himself notes, passengers appear “partially visible, blurred, blending into or resisting the background. Sometimes they appear amorphic, losing form.” In many cases, their bodily contours dissolve, turning them into formless shapes that function almost as abstract, sculptural forms. What emerges is a visual iconography of the in-between experience. Airports, New York, Rome, Johannesburg, Athens, Vienna, Istanbul, London, Kigali, Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Yangon, Dubai, Singapore, do not operate as distinct places but rather as interchangeable, almost anonymous stages. Their geography is diluted; any image could belong to any airport, at any moment. Thus, the photographic act does not refer to the uniqueness of place but to the collective experience of global mobility.

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The artist’s choice to focus on advertising surfaces and the materiality of space rather than on people highlights a critical aspect of contemporary visual culture: how the individual is entangled within an environment of images and messages that transcend individuality. Walls, billboards, and figures together form a multi-layered “labyrinthine excavation,” where the viewer is invited to question the boundaries between the real and the constructed, between presence and absence. Transit Encounters does not seek to tell stories; on the contrary, it strips photography of narrative in order to focus on form, flow, and the condition of transition. In this silent yet charged language, Kouvaras articulates a critical perspective on the relationship between humans and the spaces of globalization, revealing the ambiguity of our presence within the urban and commercial landscapes of our time.