Rope Shadow

Chris Shaghal aka Rope Shadow is a Greek photographer, short film director and Shibari artist that was born in 1979. He is a bondage photographer, alternative filmmaker, and rigger in Shibari who resides in Athens, Greece. His real name is Christos Tsakalos, but he uses Chris Shaghal as a photographer and Rope Shadow as a rigger. He combines his work with his knowledge as a photographer, rigger and filmmaker, which gives him a wide spectrum to explore.

Chris Shaghal aka Rope Shadow made his debut as a Shiabri rigger in 2011, known for performing more than 60 times in his first 6 years as a rigger. He is a recognized rigger in famous local venues, as well as in France and Germany, where he has performed several times.

Chris Shaghal aka Rope Shadow has his Shibari Performance team, Rope Studies, and he runs the local rope bondage school in Athens, called Athens Rope Dojo, where he teaches Japanese Shibari techniques since 2012.

He has participated in several Rope Bondage events and collaborated with well known contemporary rope artists such as Gorgone, Kirigami, Felix Ruckert and others. Chris Shaghal, as a photographer, wants to capture the unique Japanese rope Bondage imagery and has done media coverage for networks such as Vice. He has worked for magazines such as Illusion, Bedeseme, and Femme Rebelle.

Christos Tsakalos, as a filmmaker, focuses around fetishism, S&M, Shibari, and dark imagery, in which his photography and experimental films usually include this type of scenes. His fusion of Shibari, movement and film is poetic and almost ballet-like. He has recently featured a short experimental film he called SPIDER/FLY, where Shibari plays an important role in which the models are captured and strung up in a haunting and derelict room.

Image: Cyberspace and Time