Yorgos Efthymiadis, a fine art and architectural photographer, is originally from Greece, but currently resides outside of Boston, Massachusetts. On his website he says he’s “always been drawn to buildings, their shapes, their forms and materials, always questioning the perspective and viewpoints.” One of Efthymiaidis’s current projects, “Letting My Guard Down,” currently on display as part of THE FENCE outdoor exhibition in Boston, includes empty streets and basketball courts, referencing a human presence. In a statement about the work he says, “it took me over a year of collecting pieces from different countries that I’ve visited to come to the realization that no matter the place, people will feel the same way about everyday life; the burdens that they carry, the things that weigh them down.”

In his current series, “Awkward,” Efthymiadis continues with the theme of human presence through an appendage—an arm or a leg, and sometimes more than one. He told PDN via email, “Most of the time I use friends that are always happy to give me a hand (or a leg). Sometimes it’s just my limbs that are posing.” This project evolved from Efhtymiadis’s love of photographing beautiful spaces. “But in a way you follow the rules (nice, clean, symmetric). I just wanted to break these rules and create an environment where the viewers expect to see something familiar but they’re caught by surprise; to create an ‘awkward’ moment when they feel uncertain of what’s going on in the frame.” Some of the locations are planned in advance, while others are created while traveling. This series is still in the works, but so far Efthymiadis has created images for “Awkward” in Boston, Greece, Chile, Denmark and Switzerland.