Vladimir Antaki

I specialize in intimate portraits and stories with an uncanny ability to get to my subjectsʼ core. For my series, The Guardians, I traveled across Europe, the Middle East and America, photographing shopkeepers or “Guardians.” These Guardians are keepers of what I term “urban temples,” unique spaces which, in an age of cookie-cutter, corporate shops, hearken back to an earlier time and mode of urban life. I create visually arresting portraits of the Guardians in their urban temples that make the viewer connect to the beauty of these often forgotten spaces. I believe that these temples are the heart and soul of every city; they are what give the urban centre its uniqueness in time and place. There is also a duty of memory associated with these spaces. As so many of them are closing, it falls to artists such as myself to preserve their memory.