There is a reason this 16-year-old manages to take such impressive pictures of Limassol. Marcos may be just a high school student, but he is of an uneasy nature, he looks around and he sees in depth, and everything he sees become thoughts that he expresses through photography. They say that the new generation has nothing but social media in their mind, that they do not care about the world. Marcos does more than care, he actually observes what goes on in his city and he envisions his future in it and focuses with his camera to all those things that he wants to be part of the life he aims to build in Limassol.
Marcos, the son of a refuge from Ammochostos and an expat from Lebanon, is a typical case of the multiculturalism that consists the identity of the city, but also a very auspicious sign for the future of Limassol. Humble, low profile, persistent, talented and restless, ready to embrace change and contribute to it, he is an organic part of a city that keeps changing and growing into something really beautiful.
Marcos Haber has inherited his father’s uneasy and adventurous spirit. He was lucky enough as to follow him to his trips and journeys in beautiful locations since a very young age, up on the mountains or towards the sea. Thus, when he came across a camera, he knew exactly what he should do.
So, last summer I started editing digitally my photos”.
Video editing for school projects, at music class, or for fun with my friends, was the first thing I did. Then I got bored with it and I wanted to try something different”.
“When I got my own laptop, I could do more things with editing. While I was still doing videos, I was very into time lapse shots. That’s when I started thinking about photography”.
We went over there with my father, to see the view. There is a big hill in front of the seaside and you cannot get a glimpse of the sea, unless you go to edge of the cliff. My father and I started to climb down by car. It was a very rough route – my father likes these off-road trips a lot – but the view, once we got there, was amazing. I want to go back, when it is going to be dark, to shoot the view of the stars in the sky”.
I gave him an egg whisker with a metallic sponge in it, the one we use to clean cooking pots. I had seen a video about when this material is on fire, the result is spectacular. So, I made him stand on the dock, turning the whisker around him, and I took the picture. I thought that with the perspective the dock created, this would be a nice picture. I don’t do videos anymore, but I do like to use movement in my pictures”.
...they are in a quest of places, like I am. Some ask me to take their portraits. Also, one of my friends is now thinking of taking pictures, too”.
He was worried that I wouldn’t be careful and there was going to be some kind of accident. When he saw that I really do like this, he bought me a stand, too, which is an essential equipment for photography”.
...because I really want to take photos. The main concern is a possibility of an accident on the bike, which would injure me. But I am careful and I think that in time this became a routine”.
I go around with my bike at 3 or 5 in the morning, at midnight. I never saw something that would worry me. Yes, on Saturday, early in the morning, some people outside night clubs may be drunk, but I never thought they were a threat to me”.
I started taking pictures in Limassol, not because I think that this the only one worth it, but because I live here, this where I move. It has the advantages of all of the cities, the sea, the mountains, the traditional alleys, the beautiful buildings, surprising corners, everything”.
I would never do something exactly the same way, I would try to put my identity in it, to give my own point of view”.
I am a low-profile person in general. Photography came naturally to me. I started expressing myself through it and I wanted to evolve further”.
to take photos of the dam. Fini is a beautiful village, very picturesque, even if it is very small. It has beautiful waterfall, too. Photography needs you to be constantly moving, to discover things. My father helped me a lot with that, we have the same character, but I do go to several places myself”.
We wanted to live an adventure and take pictures of a lake called diamond hidden lake. We did not know its exact location, so we started asking around in the village and most people would tell us it was forbidden and we should not go there. It was becoming a mission impossible. We had to climb down a huge cliff and we reached the artificial lake in the mine. Someone there told us that the other lake was over the hill, but we did not have the strength to keep going. So, we need to go back there”.
I think that I illustrate the beauty of the city in a different way. Even if an image looks somewhat unreal, I do not think that it the city’s image is altered, but rather it creates a different feel”.
I like that. There are al lot of things wrong, like the cars parking in the streets and blocking the sidewalks. But the city will become very nice, especially on its seaside”.
“I like the fact that I live in Limassol. At some point, I wish to go away for studies. I want to see new things, I do like to explore, too, so I do want to travel. But I would not wish to live anywhere else”.
So, I always wanted to see that. I have been to Kyrenia, at the Castle of Ayios Ilarion, and I took some pictures, too. There are amazing locations at the occupied side”.
I use photoshop more to achieve that. For example, the picture I took while sitting and wearing the Anonymous mask, is under the trees at Dasoudi park. I was holding my phone with the flashlight on and then, at editing, I put there an image of the moon. It was an idea I had to illustrate that the people that have the power and hold our future in their hands, are not always visible to us”.
From up there, Limassol has a great view. I had planned to shoot the sunrise, at 6 am. I chose to setup my camera under the bridge between the Old Port and Limassol Marina. It was summer and there were a lot of mosquitoes, so it was difficult. I have to go back in the winter to go through with it”.
I did think that I should quit, when I was getting the result I wanted, especially when I was editing the picture at Akrotiri salt lake, where I had my brother posing. I thought, though, that if I did quit, I would have done all these and put my brother through all the trouble for nothing. So, I sat down again and I found a way out. This is how everyone in my family thinks. If I start something, I won’t leave it half. So did my father, too, when he was a taxi driver, and he kept responding to consecutive calls from the airport, even if he was driving all day and he was tired”.
“I want to keep doing this, to try to be a professional. Even if it doesn’t work, I will study something in economics or business administration and I will keep doing it as a hobby”.
From the beaches in the western Limassol and the Akrotiri peninsula, to the coast of Agios Tychon. From the seafront park and the Limassol Marina, to Amiando mine, Platres and Foini. His trips by bike, bus or even on foot, never stops and his mania is now starting to infect his friends, too, who follow him on his trips around the entire district, while his love for Limassol grows daily. After all, these were the ones who let Marcos know about the tribute article All About Limassol (the Official Source for Promoting Limassol) had prepared about his pictures.
Thus, Marcos shows both to people his own age and people older than him, a genuine and wonderful way to love Limassol and be proud and thankful for this city. Because, even if his camera won’t become the way for him to earn his life, it will always be the tool for him to document this amazing course of the city, with all its changes that he himself is anticipating so.
