Minoan Tastes Creates Ancient Flavors from the Land, Sea and Sky of Crete
Series I: Cretan Faces
People are the inspiration for this body of work, and to honor this we begin with Cretan Faces, Series I. Both in the ancient world and today, individuals of all ages, shapes, and colors use their skills and relationships to knit together a community that establish their history. The individuals in these images are captured as they work, relax, negotiate, and discuss. Here you will see farmers, fisherman, merchants, beekeepers, homemakers, and cooks. Each image holds an intimate yet distant quality that is indicative to the dualistic nature of modern life on Crete. On this island there is a strong sense of both the physical and the spiritual world. Each working in tandem, but rarely is the acknowledgment of the other visible. The images were taken in the early summer in 2014 and 2015 in the eastern most prefecture of Lassithi, Crete.
Creating dialogue through exploration and documentation is the lifeblood of the collaboration between Jerolyn E. Morrison and Stella Johnson. The two women began working together on the Greek island of Crete in 2011 to document the Minoan Tastes project, and continue to do so annually. The images exhibited are from this collection and tell the story of modern people’s understanding of the past based on archaeological and environmental evidence. The period explored is Minoan life (ca. 1700-1450 BC), which is a time of growth and contact between communities within Crete and many foreign lands. People in the Aegean during this time were also recovering from the Theran eruption on the island of Santorini, which was once believed to have destroyed the Minoan civilization. The exhibition is divided into a series, and the topics are Minoan-style ceramic cooking pots and cooking, ingredients that were available during the Minoan period, and modern Cretan faces.