ABSTRACT
The chapter considers the pragmatic and philosophical basis of creating, staging and exhibiting images of Greek seascapes and sealife by their creator, photographer, freediver and cinematographer, Stefanos Kontos. Based on Kontos’ interviews with Greek journalists and this book’s author, it is argued that two different and at times conflicting sets of ideas coexist in this philosophical/pragmatic portfolio: the first prioritises the visitors’ and stager’s unmediated engagement with marine nature and prelogical perception/appreciation of nature; the second emphasises intention and conscious emotional creativity in the staging and apprehension of the environment as a form of public art. The two philosophies are informed by specific values (environmental rather than environmentalist aesthetics) and inform a distinctive form of creativity that develops in time from amateur craft into professional art: the craftsmomentum. The chapter is addressed to tourism studies scholars, social theorists of art and aesthetics, museum studies scholars, museum designers and environmental artists.
