This is Eibodyanax and welcome to the Candid Frame.

Sometimes the best subject matter is in one's own backyard.

It's a lesson that I've certainly learned over the years, but it can be a simple one to forget.

It's easy to think that the

better subject matter is somewhere else, other than right where I am, in my own city,

in my own neighborhood. So it's interesting to me when a photographer turns their lens

to the familiar, and it's able to produce a strong body of work.

That familiarity, which makes it far too easy to overlook things,

can be the very thing that allows the photographer to reveal their world in a unique way.

Our guest, Nico Calignottis, did just that as he explored the Greek community of his youth in Astoria, New York.

The result is a combination of nostalgia and social documentary, but with a very personal touch.

I began our talk by asking him how being a young Greek immigrant impacted the way he looked at the American Greek community that he was being introduced to.

Well, it wasn't a bad taste. It was more, you have to understand that. And a lot of people

don't really understand that, especially if you haven't lived in Europe in the 90s, you have

to, or especially when I first came here, like late 80s, there was no, every, there were just Greeks, basically in Greece.

There was no ethnic diversity whatsoever, minor, very minor.

So when my, you know, plus I had my friends, et cetera, I was involved with, you know,

soccer is big in Greece.

I was, you know, I was a kid.

I didn't want to lose my friends and, you know, my community and my neighborhood.

So going from the transition of Athens to Queens, it was a cultural shock.

Because Astoria, I was doing research for my project when I started it, and according to 2009,

...