Published on Greece Is / Words by Alex King, Pictures by Penelope Thomaidi

Creativity in the Countryside: How Art and Tech are Revitalizing Epirus

Three inspiring initiatives are drawing on art, tradition, and open-source technologies to shape a better future in the rugged mountains of Epirus.

In the wild and beautiful Tzoumerka mountains young people from the Balkans collaborate to repair an old stone path reviving traditional building techniques, an open-lab designs and fabricates open source farming tools and contemporary art is exhibited in the building of the old school of Elliniko village. 

What these three initiatives do is really inspiring! Read the full article.

Many thanks to Click Magazine team for including an interview and presenting a big part of my A Zone to Defend series in its No. 68 issue. Browse through the pages of Click Magazine #68, to discover the work of photographers Vicky Martin, Ivan Clemente, Claudio Rasano, Mauro Liggi, Paolo Manzo, Penelope Thomaidi.

Helsinki Photo Festival is on!

The theme for this year is “Anarchy”, and the main exhibition presents the works of 50 winning finalists, including 25 winners of the Best Image competition and a multimedia presentation of 24 shortlisted artists from all over the world.

A Zone to Defend will be shown at the main exhibition at one of the most iconic historic warehouses in Helsinki, the “Katajanokan Tulli- ja Pakkehuone & at the outdoor collective exhibition at Hesperian Esplanadi Runeberginkatu 32-34

Duration: July 30 (Tuesday) – September 9 (Monday) 2019
Discover  all  the participating projects and photographers at
helsinkiphotofestival.com.

Coming back to greek summer childhood memories can be a strong fuel for the new working season! Thanks to L’Oeil de la Photographie for sharing this holiday picture. Back to work now!

Sharing here some views from the exhibition of  A Zone to Defend at the Young Greek Photographers exhibition of the Athens Photo Festival 2019 in the Benaki Museum, Pireos Annexe, Athens, 2019.

A Zone to Defend has been selected as one of  the winners of Open Call 2019 – Anarchy!  As a result, the project  and will be on show at the Helsinki Photo Festival 2019 during 5 July to 9 September, 2019.

The full list of the open call winners includes  50 photographers whose projects will be exhibited at HELPHOTO 2019:
Y, Dieter Schamne, Federico Estol, Seunggu Kim, Charles Park, Marco sanges, Denise Prince, Svante Gullichsen, Robert Rutöd, Janne Korkko, Valerio Polici, David Arribas Gonzalez, Tine Bek, Ruben Martin de Lucas, Christa Blackwood, Minoo Hassanzadeh, Hossein Fardinfard, Sem Langendijk, Alex Yudzon, Diego Saldiva, Neha Hirve, David Sladek, Maxime Reynie, Ma Siliang, Vitor Queiroz, David Verberckt, Laura Brichta, Sadaf Rassoul Cameron, Emilie Royer, Ryan Walker, Marcus Gustafsson, Ute Behrend, Victoria Crayhon, Henri Blommers, Isadora Frost, Niina Vehmaa, Kasa Loka, Evgeni Attsetski, Claudio Verbano, Thadé Comar, Penelope Thomaidi, Arianne Clément, Saara Tuominen, Jenni Emilia Toivonen, Tatiana Bondareva, Annagenia Jacob, Jon Lanbroa, Daniel Minsky, Jorge López Muñoz, Michael P Martin

A Zone to Defend will be presented at the exhibition Young Greek Photographers in the context of the Athens Photo Festival 2019.

Opening: Thursday 13 June 2019, 20.30
Location:  Benaki Museum, 138 Pireos str. , Athens, GR
Duration: 13 June – 28 July 2019

Photo Doc. is a foire dedicated to documentary photography that takes place for the 4th time in central Paris. It is a research and production platform for new documentary forms, as well as it provides consulting for collectors.

My series Life Twists will be presented along with small prints of other series, next to the work of 12 fellow Hans Lucas photographers. It will be a great pleasure to see you there!

10-12 of May 2019
at la Halle des Blancs Manteaux
48 Rue Vieille du Temple, 75004, Paris
Friday 14h-22h, Saturday 12h-21h, Sunday 11h-20h

Exhibiting: Galerie agnès b – Paris, Galerie Jean-Denis Walter – Paris, Galerie Photo 12 – Paris, Galerie Sit Down – Paris, Hans Lucas Studio – France, L’Oeil du Douard – José Nicolas – France, Les Bains Révélateurs – Roubaix, Meeting Art Point – France, Plac’Art – Paris, Photo Doc. galerie – Paris, Photo Doc. Lab – Paris, Regard Sud – Lyon, Vincent Scali – Paris, Singulart – France, YPF / Yakushima Photography Festival – Ile de Yakushima – Japon

What is the relevance of Anarchism today? This is exactly what Durty Words is about.

As its authors put it: Durty Words is an invitation to make a space for dialogue, solidarity, resistance and creation through the medium of print. In 2016, we began the journey of making this book by asking people to respond to the relevance of Anarchist thought today. The title alludes to the fact that anarchism, along with other theories and practices that seek alternatives to capitalism, are often misunderstood. There are fractures within how we organise for a better world; it is important to recognise these, and therefore we set out to create a space for debate that is built on respect. By bringing together 134 contributors from different backgrounds from all over the world, we aim to begin to map the resonances and dissonances across diverse social movements. In this time of great social injustice, protest is necessary, but there is more to resistance than protest. We are interested in the space that opens up when we create a platform for building alternatives to that which we protest.

It feels so good to hold Durty Words in my hands! Thanks Kate O’ Shea and Victoria Brunetta for bringing together 134 contributors, for creating the beautiful Durty Words book and for including some of my pictures in it, along with John Jordan’s inspiring words.

Preview at www.durtywords.com & orders at info@durtywords.com

A year of an intense photographic education programme is over! Thanks to Magnum Photos this a rich and fruitful year and for sharing some of graduates’ thoughts and work, including mine, in this article: 

“September will see the start of 2018’s one-year program in Documentary and Photojournalism in Paris. The accredited course runs until July 2019, and is delivered by Spéos Photo and Video School alongside photographers and staff from Magnum Photos, with much of the course taught within Magnum’s Paris office. The intensive course is aimed at providing students with the historical and contextual framework required to develop and engage in critical thinking about documentary photography, as well as providing technical guidance and tutorial support to develop students’ individual documentary practices.

In advance of this year’s course, we look at the work of three previous students and share their impressions of the program, as well as the thoughts of Magnum photographer Patrick Zachmann, one of the program’s teachers.”

Read the whole article at MAGNUM Theory & Practice section of MAGNUM PHOTOS official website.