Icon Stations

Icon Stations is a photographic index of 300 icon stands; wayside shrines that punctuate the vast and mountainous landscape of Crete. Compiled over the course of 4 years, the collection of images is both a straight-forward, objective record and yet an intimate document of a journey – one that unravels a whole host of histories and myths woven into the fabric of their existence. It is an attempt at a loose indexing, an intuitive gathering of various forms of shrines that occupy various indeterminate spaces across the island: roads, pathways, shorelines, boundaries and thresholds. Together, these lonely reliquaries make up a symbolic geography through which memory is both conveyed and sustained. 

Icon Stations is an alternative portrait of Crete, and a testament to humanity’s universal yearning to connect with the divine and the ancestral. These shrines, scattered across continents and cultures, are more than mere markers — they are sacred intersections where past and present converge, inviting us to reflect on the landscapes we collectively navigate. 

This is the first photo-book by artist Daniel Adhami. The images are accompanied by an extensive index listing coordinates and materials of each shrine, alongside three short texts in both English and Greek from writers Lilly Markaki and Louise Camu, as well as the artist himself.