Greek photographer Nicholas Samaras brings an athlete’s relationship with water into focus in his underwater portrait of Antonios Tsapatakis, also known as Antonis. The Greek swimmer sustained a spinal cord injury in a motorcycle accident in 2006 and went on to compete in the men’s 100-metre breaststroke SB4. His sporting career gives the portrait a particular resonance: water is both the photographer’s setting and the environment in which Tsapatakis trains and competes.
Tsapatakis had already collected more than twenty medals when this profile first appeared. His early international results included fourth place at London 2012 and silver at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow. Further Paralympic success followed: the International Paralympic Committee’s results list records bronze in the 100-metre breaststroke SB4 at Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, and silver in the same event at Paris 2024. These dated results trace a career that continued well beyond the making of the portrait. They also offer a more useful account of his progress than a medal total without a date.
A swimmer’s presence beneath the surface
A still image allows the relationship between body, surrounding water and available space to become its own subject. That is different from a race result: the portrait interprets presence rather than measuring performance. The sporting background adds another layer to the image. Competition photographs often revolve around a lane, a finish or a split-second result; here, the swimmer’s relationship to the surrounding space becomes the focus. Samaras’s choice of viewpoint gives that encounter its shape, while Tsapatakis brings the experience of an athlete accustomed to working in water. The image holds a swimmer within an environment usually encountered through continuous movement.
The portrait's stillness also offers a different tempo from competition coverage, allowing the viewer to remain with a single bodily arrangement rather than follow a result.
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Additional source: International Paralympic Committee: Antonios Tsapatakis, 2020.
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