By recording thoughts, emotions, and other imprints of her reality, Antigone Kourakou explores the universal dynamic between the natural environment and human presence, and the ability of their interaction to transform us. Her photographs—most often shot in her native Greece—strikingly contrast bright light with deep, velvety shadows. Her collaborative subjects, most frequently women, often appear in contorted, twisted, or dancer-like poses, and alternately, in reflective states of longing, struggle, or lucidity.

In Transfiguration, published by Skeleton Key Press, these images are thoughtfully arranged and sequenced throughout with depictions of water, stone, trees, plants, fire, and dilapidated interiors quietly assisting the book’s poetic arc. More revealing upon each viewing, Transfiguration poses more questions than it answers while inviting viewers to participate in a fictional yet tactile world; one open to exploration and interpretation which gracefully reflects on the exuberance and struggle of existence.