© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

Strawberry Blue grew out of a very personal period of migration, recovery, and change. Looking back, what was the first spark that made you realize this experience needed to become a photographic project?

Marinos Tsagkarakis (MT) This project emerged organically. It began more as a process of recovery and adaptation to an unfamiliar environment than as a project with a predefined concept. For a long time, I wasn't thinking in terms of a coherent body of work; I was simply responding to my surroundings and to my own emotional state.

A pivotal moment came after a massive thunderstorm that dramatically reshaped the park and its surroundings. Until then, my attention had been focused primarily on the people I encountered there and on the relationships that developed through making portraits. The storm shifted my gaze toward the landscape itself—its transformations, traces, and small details. That change enriched the work and expanded its possibilities. It was then that I began to realize that these photographs could form a larger visual narrative. What started as a personal coping mechanism gradually evolved into a photographic project that would span seven years.

© Book Strawberry Blue, Marinos Tsagkarakis

© Book Strawberry Blue, Marinos Tsagkarakis

Please talk to us about the park. Where is it in the Netherlands, and how did your relationship with this place evolve over the time you spent photographing there?

MT: I live in a small city in the south of the Netherlands—a place that was once defined by industrial production and is now one of Europe's most important technology hubs.

But in many ways, the specific name or location of the park is not important. What interests me is that it could be almost any park, anywhere in the world. It is an ordinary public space where ordinary people come to walk, rest, reflect, meet others, or simply find shelter from the pressures of everyday life.

Over time, my relationship with the park became deeply personal. It transformed from a place of observation into a place of belonging. As the years passed, it became intertwined with my own life, routines, and identity redefinition.

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

Throughout the book, the portraits, landscapes, and small encounters seem to mirror your own search for belonging and identity. Were there particular moments or people that helped you see yourself in a new way

MT: I think the most important thing was not a particular encounter but the act of returning to the park almost every day for nearly seven years. Looking back, I can see that period unfolding in distinct phases.

In the beginning, I was often alone, wandering through the park and following random paths. A few years later, I was walking those same paths, pushing a stroller with my first child, and later with my second. The park became a silent witness to my own transformation and to the different stages of my life.

At the same time, my engagement with many of the people I photographed taught me something important. I realized that the need to belong, to create roots, and to feel connected is not exclusive to someone living in a foreign country. It is a deeply human need that transcends nationality, culture, and circumstance.

© Book Strawberry Blue, Marinos Tsagkarakis

© Book Strawberry Blue, Marinos Tsagkarakis 

© Book Strawberry Blue, Marinos Tsagkarakis

In Strawberry Blue a feeling of vulnerability and resilience exists at the same time, almost “laughing while crying.” How did you approach translating these emotions into images?

MT: To be honest, when I photograph, I try not to think too much. It is a largely intuitive process, and emotion is usually the driving force behind making an image.

Only later, during the editing process, do I begin to understand what the photographs are revealing about my emotional state. Looking back, I can often trace connections between what I was feeling and what I was repeatedly drawn to photograph.

For example, there was a period when I found myself making many photographs of broken branches and uprooted trees. At the time, I wasn't consciously aware of why I was attracted to those subjects, but in retrospect, they reflected exactly how I felt—displaced, unsettled, and disconnected from my roots. The camera often understands things before the mind does.

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

Where do you see Strawberry Blue fitting within your artistic journey? Are there themes or questions that connect it to your earlier projects, and in what ways does it mark a departure?

MT: For me, it is essential to keep evolving as a photographer and to remain open to experimentation, new approaches, and different ways of seeing.

After many years of photographing, I found myself asking how my various projects were connected. What threads run through them? At first glance, if someone compares Paradise Inn (Void, 2017) and Strawberry Blue (Overlapse, 2026), they might struggle to see a relationship between them. One could even imagine they were made by different photographers.

Yet the connection is actually very simple. Every major project I have produced is rooted in a particular cycle of my life. Paradise Inn grew out of childhood memories and my experience of watching the small fishing village in Crete where I grew up transform into a luxury tourist destination, only to begin showing signs of decay two decades later.

My next project, Wild Goose Chase, reflects my years of adulthood and my attempt to follow the "right" path toward success and happiness, while wrestling with questions of meaning, order, and purpose in an indifferent world.

Strawberry Blue brings us to the present. It encompasses my decision to leave behind my country, family, friendships, and memories in search of a different future in Northern Europe. In many ways, it is a meditation on migration, belonging, and the process of building a new life.

Taken together, these three bodies of work reflect the three major chapters of my life so far.

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

© Marinos Tsagkarakis from "Strawberry Blue"

What do you feel you have gained or understood through the making of Strawberry Blue?

MT: Perhaps the most important lesson was learning not to force a project to be finished before it is truly complete.

One interesting aspect of Strawberry Blue is that a significant number of photographs were made after we had already begun working on the publication with the team - Tiffany from Overlapse, Sylvia from MISC Athens, and lead designer Manos. Those images ultimately proved essential to the narrative and helped shape the final form of the book. The project needed time to reveal what it wanted to become.

Another realization was that meaningful work does not necessarily require travel, long journeys, or distant destinations. There is often a tendency in photography to look elsewhere for inspiration, but Strawberry Blue taught me that a complete and cohesive body of work can emerge from the places closest to us.

For me, working within a limited geographical area felt liberating rather than restrictive. By returning to the same place over and over again, I discovered that depth can be more rewarding than distance.

© Book Strawberry Blue, Marinos Tsagkarakis

Book Info

Published by Overlapse (UK) in collaboration with MISC

FIRST Edition Hardcover, 215 x 165mm portrait
126pp with 69 photographs and illustrations
Section sewn with foil on cover and spine
Text by Marinos Tsagkarakis
ISBN 9781738130047

Editors: Tiffany Jones, Sylvia Sachini
Design: Manos Tzavolakis, Tiffany Jones
Cover graphic + typeface: Manos Tzavolakis

Marinos Tsagkarakis
Book Strawberry Blue, Overlapse