Sunny Days/A true story is a series that explores an abandoned road which once was a major arterial road through Northern Greece. The artist made multiple trips back and forth to capture the remains of the route that took him to the sea, when he was a kid. The landmarks of his early summer days in the family car have long been neglected and left to the whims of time and nature, leaving houses and objects in decay.  The construction of the new highway which runs parallel to the old one transforms the landscape. The places he remembered are now covered in a thick layer of dust.  

Carrying a heavy plate large-format camera, he began to write his personal story in a deliberately composed style. Along the way, he photographed dystopian spaces, where the weight of the recent past is manifested, and selected artifacts that are part of an uncanny and inscrutable world. He was fascinated by the objects scattered all around; capturing them on a stand, in the fashion of important findings or museum exhibits.  

This series also features a series of portrait of the people Pavlidis met through this journey, particularly those who have chosen to retreat from society and live off the grid in this liminal area. Using a white backdrop fabric, the artist photographed them as lead actors of the narrative. This authority is in contrast to their daily reality; that is affected by local development schemes and constraining policies.

Such “non-spaces” grow, adapt and are constantly reinvented, outside of the common, predictable world. People leave traces at these locations that become inscribed as relics of their time. The objects - discarded as trash or preserved as memorabilia - tell stories of identity and loss, pose new questions while affirming old certainties.

It is a parallel reality with its own ethos and history that cannot exist apart from the mainstream reality. They remain inextricably bound up, as two sides of the same coin. This project wishes to open the door into the hidden reality that stands in plain sight or in other words, unfold” a Faraway Nearby”.