With the financial support and auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Region of Epirus and the Municipality of Ioannina

Photometria International Photography Festival

17th edition

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11.2025

Photometria International Photography Festival 2025, hosts mοre than 50 artists in 12 exhibition venues in the city of Ioannina. Photometria Photography Center, the festival’s permanent headquarters, hosts one of the most emblematic exhibitions of the festival for 2025. As every year, the program is rich in new photographic proposals, high-level lectures and activities for visitors and citizens of Ioannina. At the end of the festival, a selection of exhibitions is presented to various cities around the country and abroad.

Entrance is free to all the exhibition venues of Photometria Festival

“Non Stop Pop”, Photometria Awards 2025

Group exhibition of the 25 selected photographs of the competition Photometria Awards 2025 “Non Stop Pop”, judged by Alec Soth

Pop culture reflects the values, desires, and concerns of contemporary society and is constantly being redefined through its commercial dissemination via the media and consumer culture. The concept of “Non Stop Pop” suggests a constant and unceasing flow of images and symbols that flood the social web and continuously influence our perceptions and expectations.

An anthropological interpretation of pop culture focuses on its role as a collective tool for identity formation, creating a kind of “collective ego” expressed through symbols, clothing choices and behaviours, forming communities connected through the shared acceptance of these characteristics.

The notion of pop culture as a product of consumption is also a crucial dimension to be explored. As a field of incessant commodification and consumption, pop culture imagery is quickly assimilated by the public, who accept and reproduce it until they are overtaken by new trends. This rapid turnover of trends, which characterises the contemporary consumption pattern, emphasises temporality and ephemerality.

In the age of digital communication, pop culture infiltrates everyday life not only through traditional media, but also through social networks and the internet. Anyone can create and disseminate content, participating in the incessant production of pop aesthetics. In addition, the need for popularity and social recognition has become one of the most dominant characteristics of pop culture. Through the display of moments from their personal lives on social media, many seek to construct an attractive and often carefully crafted image of themselves that exudes prosperity, success and social acceptance. However, the intensity with which online popularity is pursued often raises questions about whether these images represent truth or simply a superficial version of reality. While these platforms foster a sense of connection and recognition, the images presented are often ‘filtered’ and selected, emphasising only the brighter aspects of life. Thus, the pursuit of popularity often becomes an end in itself, moving away from authenticity, replacing personal experience with a manufactured narrative, which can create intense psychological pressure and feelings of inadequacy.

Finally, in pop culture, colour functions as a central aesthetic tool that enhances the visual immediacy and dynamism of images, making them attractive and widely recognisable. The intense and saturated colours that dominate advertising media, social media and fashion do not merely serve a decorative role, but reflect and accentuate the impermanence and speed of consumer culture.

Ioannina City Hall (surrounding area)

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11

“Marrickville / Silent Agreements”, Emmanuel Angelicas

curated by: Hercules Papaioannou

Back in 1998, Emmanuel Angelicas and six other members of the Australian photographic community took part in a group exhibition titled Lonely Hemisphere at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of the international Photosynkyria festival. At the time, no one would imagine that twenty-five years later, Angelicas would be presenting at the same venue a retrospective exhibition of his work on Marrickville, now spanning five decades. Theo Angelopoulos used to say that we always make the same film – that is, we keep revisiting the same inner question or stimulus. Echoing this notion, Angelicas has been photographing since his childhood years, among other projects, the same suburb in Inner West Sydney, the immigrant neighbourhood he was born and raised in. 

His works, invariably square and in black & white, oscillate between the world of first-generation immigrants, defined by strict codes and rituals, and the fluid world of second-generation ones; between the traditional and the modern, the first regulated by unwritten rules and the second moving, overtly and covertly, beyond social norms and inhibitions. Photos of close-knit nuclear families alternate here with images that convey an impression of sensuality, violence, breaking with norms and a multifaceted diversity. In his portraits the longing for life coexist with the rigidity of death, the visible with the latent, what people really are with what they might have aspired to be, including sometimes the shifting lines separating the two. The frontality of his photographs, with their almost blunt immediacy, is partly misleading. Underneath this convention of objectivity, one senses a sort of vivid affirmation of life as an unpredictable phenomenon, gentle as well as rough, surprising and also resisting convenient classifications. 

At a time of globalization’s glorification, Angelicas’ photographs represent a meticulous study of the subtle, inexhaustible nuances of the local, recalling the ingenious and unconventional American musician Frank Zappa, observing that whatever is deeply personal becomes also ecumenical. Clearly, then, Angelicas is not content with artfully documenting the life of a Sydney migrant community or a vaguely contemporary Australian identity. He digs deeper to bring to the surface things often hidden, against a recurrent backdrop of existential loneliness. Marrickville though for Angelicas is a project that also inevitably serves as an indirect glimpse into half a century of his own lifetime, into the human crossroads he boldly traversed through “silent agreements”, gaining access to worlds often private.

Hercules Papaioannou

Municipal Gallery of Ioannina (ground floor)

Duration: 28.9 – 28.11

Mon – Thu: 9:00 – 14:00

Fri: 9:00 – 21:00

Sun: 10:00 – 13:00 & 18:00 – 21:00

in collaboration with Momus – Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

and the support of the Australian Embassy in Greece

“Reaching the stars”, Kristian Schuller

curated by: Panagiotis Pappas

Kristian Schuller’s photographic work merges fashion, theatricality, and visual artistry to construct poetic, surreal worlds. His images are not documentary but staged fantasies, where costume, architecture, light, and movement form rich, expressive narratives. Influenced by European cinema (surrealism, expressionism) and iconic fashion photographers like Blumenfeld and Man Ray, Schuller’s style often reflects his Eastern Bloc childhood through exaggeration and dramatic flair. In collaboration with his wife and art director, Peggy Schuller, he transforms garments into sculptural installations, challenging traditional fashion imagery. Color in his work is symbolic and emotive, while human figures—especially female ones—become mythic or ambiguous presences rather than mere models. Schuller’s photography invites viewers to step into a world of imagination, irony, and aesthetic intensity. In an era of digital uniformity and fast visuals, his work champions artistic intention, visual complexity, and the enduring power of constructed imagery, turning fashion into a space of storytelling and visual freedom.

Municipal Gallery of Ioannina (1st floor)

Duration: 28.9 – 28.11

Mon – Thu: 9:00 – 14:00

Fri: 9:00 – 21:00

Sun: 10:00 – 13:00 & 18:00 – 21:00

“On the beach“, Giorgos Depollas

coordinated by: Hara Sklika

Greek photographer Giorgos Depollas selects 30 photographs from his series On the Beach, which are presented as part of the 17th Photometria International Photography Festival.

George Depollas’ work has made a significant contribution to both contemporary Greek photography, as it has developed since the 1980s, and to visual culture more broadly, by depicting everyday life, ordinary people, social groups, and popular culture. Since the early 1970s, Depollas has used images to tell the stories of people he meets, engages with, and observes. Influenced by cinematography in the early stages of his engagement with photography, George Depollas explores the possibilities of the medium, becoming part of the everyday, sometimes comic, sometimes solitary, but always centered on the human experience.

The hardcover album that accompanies Depollas’ work, published in 2003 by Fotorama Publications, contains 58 photographs, most of which were taken between 1984 and 1986 at the Attica riviera, mainly in the Loutsa region. With extensive essays by Kostis Antoniadis and Hercules Papaioannou.

Photometria Photography Center (ground floor)

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11

Thu. – Sun.: 17:00 – 21:00

“Out of this World”, Sanja Marusic

curated by: Panagiotis Pappas

Sanja Marusic’s photographic practice is an exploration of the ephemeral nature of the image and the dialectical relationship between body, landscape and colour composition. Through a multi-dimensional visual vocabulary that includes analogue and digital photography, film, collage and painting, the artist attempts to deconstruct our sense of place and time, creating an alternative virtual world.

The way in which Marusic integrates the human body into the physical environment resembles a form of “living sculpture”, which exists only for the duration of the moment of photographic capture. Her visual language relies on distancing herself from the realistic context: bodies are often stripped of facial features, while clothing and scenography are designed to avoid references to specific temporal or cultural coordinates.

Colour is a structural element of her artistic expression, not just as an aesthetic tool, but as a strategy for deconstructing visual experience. Marusic approaches her photographs with the logic of the discolored image, re-selecting the palette through digital and handmade interventions. In this way, the use of colour becomes a process of mental reconstruction of space, offering a sense of controlled freedom.

Out of This World constitutes a photographic narrative that transcends the boundaries of realistic representation, inviting the viewer into an experience of withdrawal from the familiar. Through the interweaving of body, landscape and visual intervention, Marusic proposes an alternative way of seeing, where the image functions not as a mere representation of reality, but as a field of reflection on the very nature of visual perception.

Exhibition Venue of the Municipal Cultural Multiplex “D. Chatzis”

Duration: 27.9 – 12.10

Mon. – Fri.: 18:00 – 22:00

Sat. – Sun.: 10:00 – 14:00 & 18:00 – 22:00

“FUTURITIES: The other Side of Sustainability, Human extinction, Space Exploration and Visualization”, Yannis Kontos, Ioannis Galanopoulos Papavasileiou

curated by: Yannis Kontos and Ioannis Galanopoulos Papavasileiou

For the past 65 years, humanity’s hopes and aspirations for space exploration have materialized in unprecedented ways. After the moon, given its relative proximity, Mars has become the primary target. Besides scientific discoveries, space exploration opens avenues to humanity’s wildest dreams, from the potential discovery of extraterrestrial life to becoming an interplanetary species. But before getting there, we need to “see where we are going,” and this entails enhancing our scientific eye. The Emirates Mars Hope Mission (EMM) is the first probe that provides data of the Martian atmosphere and its layers since it reached the planet’s orbit in 2021.

This collaborative art project, by Dr. Ioannis Galanopoulos Papavasileiou and Dr Ioannis Kontos, with a public exhibition and community outreach activities seeks to draw connections between art and science, the current drive for space mapping and visualization within the auspices of the new Space Age and the (EMM) and to illustrate discussions that favor the other side of sustainability, human extinction, or humanity’s escape from Earth in search of new stars and solar systems.

FUTURITIES: aims to illustrate narratives, artifacts, and speculative environments that pertain to the other side of sustainability — the potential threat of human extinction, and its links to space exploration. It seeks to propose solutions through exhibition and to engage with art and design strategies. This is achieved through expanded Photography, Text to Image Generation, and Installation. The benefit of this intermediary practice is the renegotiation of ‘our scientific gaze’ both in science and in art. Speculative space art (that is, interpretive planetary views, wormholes, nebulae, or other non-places in space) can live on and create new (master) narratives about place (space), collective culture, and enhance human knowledge of sustainability versus extinction. Examples of the latter are paper or visionary architecture productions, which exist only as images. These include the archives of single architects or collectives such as Archigram, Superstudio, or Toyo Ito’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Hyde Park. Trapped in latent human scope, time, and place, these speculative environments or habitats can produce amoebic narratives about our world and offer multiple references for new utopian habitats.

FUTURITIES continues this heritage and proposes solutions within the contexts of sustainability or human extinction. It addresses questions on the process of scientific evolution, its duration and impact on human generations, the significance and historical extension of the Emirates Mars Mission for UAE citizens, the relationship between scientific and artistic images in the context of the digital era, the process of creating images of space with diverse media, its challenges, and limitations in the terrain of contemporary art-production, and in the context of the infotainment experience of contemporary viewers.

Outdoor area (castle’s south gate)

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11

Mon. – Sun.: 8:00 – 21:00

with the support of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina

“Spirits Unseen“, Myrto Papadopoulos

curated by: Christophoros Doulgeris

“Spirits Unseen” is the product of Myrto Papadopoulos’s research and photography in the remote villages of the Pomak minority in Thrace. For a period of six years, she undertook multiple journeys and explorations in the mountain Pomak villages with the aim of engaging with the female community who stay close to these lands to tend to the needs of their households. In contrast, the lives of the men follow different trajectories, as
they are forced to migrate to the cities of northern Europe in search of work.

As the traditional structures and relationships in the Pomak community adjust to these social and economic conditions, both genders appear to be engaged in a dynamic exploration of questions of discrimination in the world of employment and education. Spirits Unseen focuses on gender roles in a society where couples marry young and at the same time seek their own voices and identities amidst the shadows of history and the codes of tradition.

Papadopoulou’s works appear to balance on the invisible boundary between the light and the dark, which coexist in a mystical land. Animals, trees, water, symbols, people, and earth make up natural materials for the composition of collective ritualistic processes. Organic and human forms at times commune with one another under a light that is new; at others, they emerge soundlessly like subterranean waters, not as something otherworldly, but to reveal secrets and sensitivities. All are illuminated fleetingly as elements of a scene, rising up to forge a moment of understanding before disappearing once again.

The photographer weaves a narrative that moves from personal experiences to fables, from the solid ground of tradition to the flow of water and change of seasons, from the role and position of women – once invisible – to the internal rhythm and power that permeates their senses and emotions.

An integral component of the work is a collection of archival material, elements of which appear unexpectedly on the unbroken thread connecting present and past. While these images appear to be from a place far removed, their aura endures – the imprint of a world that still shapes the present.

Papadopoulos thus presents a work that reevaluates the dominant narratives that are projected onto minority communities, while at the same time highlighting social, spiritual, and cultural dimensions, exploring the mythic reality of the multifaceted Pomak identity.

The Silversmithing Museum

Duration: 27.9 – 3.11

[27.9 – 15.10] Every day except Tuesday: 10:00 – 18:00 

[16.10 – 3.11] Every day except Tuesday: 10:00 – 17:00

in co-organization with Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation

“Salvem les Fotos UPV / Recuperar las Memorias”

curated by: Pedro Vicente-Mullor, Pilar Soriano Sancho, Esther Nebot Díaz, Panagiotis Pappas

curation’s assistant: Darío Rodriguez Ochoa

This exhibition presents the remarkable collective effort behind Salvem les Fotos UPV / Recuperar las Memorias, a project launched in the wake of the devastating DANA floods that struck Valencia on October 29, 2024. Confronted with thousands of family photographs damaged by water and mud, a group of volunteers—including students, researchers, conservators, and technicians—came together under the guidance of researchers Pedro Vicente-Mullor, Pilar Soriano Sancho, and Esther Nebot Díaz. Organized at the Universitat Politècnica de València, the initiative focused on gathering, cleaning, and restoring hundreds of thousands of damaged family photographs, with the aim of preserving what had seemed irretrievably lost.

The exhibition not only focuses on the emotional and symbolic value of these images but also brings to light the technical, meticulous, and often unseen work involved in their recovery. Visitors will discover the context and process of the project. Alongside documentation of the methods and tools used, the exhibition presents damaged photographs in their original state alongside their restored counterparts. These images reveal not only the fragility of memory but also its unexpected resilience.

Salvem les Fotos UPV / Recuperar las Memorias stands as a testament to the power of community, the role of care in preserving culture, and the profound bond between memory, image, and identity.

 “Dimitrios Konstantios” Multipurpose Hall (Its Kale) 

Duration: 27.9 – 12.10

Mon. – Fri.: 18:00 – 21:00

Sat. – Sun.: 10:00 – 13:00 & 18:00 – 21:00

“Tide”, Telemach Wiesinger

curated by: Panagiotis Pappas 

Telemach Wiesinger has a talent for creatively pursuing the same theme for a long time. In his new series, he is captivated by the sea. He leaves all topographical and biographical narrative to one side and strictly focuses on the interplay between light, sea and sky – firmly bound by the horizon, the fateful line for world view and seafaring alike. This distant frontier, where the seas of water and air meet if in our sight only, is one of the most elementary ways of orientation and occupies the memory and imagery of humankind throughout all ages. The horizon is an element of order, is a border, is a great invitation for journeys of the mind as well as on ship. The horizon is the line where stars go up and down, where we can practice observation and differentiation, where navigators and astronomers learn to read signs and learn to decide on significance and consequences of events. The horizon is a theme with a lot of pathos – yet Telemach Wiesinger composes it coldly, laconically and precisely. He usually chooses a high camera position, directs the horizon into the middle of the picture and limits the image firmly within a square. We learned of the importance of this form through the painters Malewitsch or Albers. Within its order we now find what the photographer has wittily called “seescapes” – invitations to seeing whose theme is the sea and the act of seeing itself.

Now the seascapes carry the title of TIDE. This is about the black, white and grey sound track of the pure, centred and fresh sight. No marina painting with a multitude of ships and the dramatic fight between humans and the sea; no coast painting with fishing or bathing life; no Melville or Joseph Conrad feeling; no last minute misunderstanding of distant lagunas; not a single beach or coastline one would be able to identify – only once a tank ship discernible as a black mark on the horizon, once, around midday, a light house. These are real time – Telemach Wiesinger is no digital pixelwiz who fabricates desired effects on a computer. He passionately captures analog pictures, uses filter effects and practices all the arts of the dark room. The classic process makes of each photograph a moment of truth. Up there in the sky, down there on the sea. What do we see? What do we know? (Wolfgang Heidenreich)

Castle’s arcades (St. George’s gate)

Duration: 27.9 – 12.10

Mon. – Fri.: 18:00 – 21:00

Sat. – Sun.: 10:00 –  13:00 & 18:00 – 21:00

“Fungi”, Elizabeth Rovit

curated by: Euaggelia Flerianou

At the heart of urban life, amidst concrete and chaos, lies a hidden world teeming with both life and decay. The photo diary explores spaces that are both unknown and familiar, capturing moments of raw reality, isolation, and vulnerability amidst the hustle and bustle. The images reflect the fragile and momentary nature of life, challenging conventional ideals of beauty. 

In “Fungi”, the image stops serving as a detached representation of reality and is transformed into a kind of autobiographical diary. The urban landscape serves as a neutral canvas on which the marks of individual experience are laid. Close-ups, intentional asymmetries, and distorted perspectives do not aim to idealize the subject, but rather to highlight the human experience as it is lived through time, in all its fragility. Although the images depict signs of decay, solitude, and abandonment, a hidden form of resilience emerges. This visual approach does not seek to beautify reality, capturing instead the dynamic between decay and the tenacity of existence. Just as “Fungi” grow in environments of decomposition, life too can persist and be transformed even under adverse conditions.

Gallery 3Portes

Duration: 27.9 – 12.10

Mon. – Fri.: 10:00 – 14:00

Tue., Thu., Fri.: 18:00 – 20:00

Sat.: 13:00 – 15:00

with the support of the Gallery 3Portes

Parallel Voices

curated by: Panagiotis Pappas

Group exhibition of the 9 selected portfolios of the Parallel Voices 2025 contest

Pyrsinellas Mansion outdoor area – Municipal Regional Theater

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11

with the support of the Municipal Regional Theater of Ioannina

“The Roma Princesses”, Manuel Federl

“Once upon a time, there was a princess in the Roma ghetto. Society’s racism and discrimination trapped her in the slum. Nevertheless, a brave prince tried to free her from the clutches of poverty and place the world at her feet.” A dream that many girls in the Roma settlements probably have. 

The girl from this fairy tale lives in Trebišov, one of the largest Roma ghettos in  Slovakia. Around 7,000 people live here under precarious conditions in cobbled-together barracks or run-down tenements. Most apartments have no sewage system,  no showers, no toilets, and no kitchen. There is one single well for all residents.  Trebišov, in eastern Slovakia, is one of around 800 settlements that exist, according to the 2019 Atlas of Roma Communities. 

Around 450,000 Roma live in Slovakia. Already, children have a difficult start.  According to a 2022 study by the European Union, 2/3 of Roma children go to schools where only Roma are taught. The girl from the fairy tale also attends an all-Roma school in the settlement. The children often speak Romani, the language of the Roma, with their parents at home. Since there are no kindergartens for them, their Slovak language is often poor when they start school. They are enrolled in special schools that only Roma attend. The school material in nine years 

corresponds to the content that Slovak children learn in four years. Because of this,  attending secondary school is almost impossible. 

Discrimination and poor access to education prevent young Roma from breaking the vicious circle of poverty. They have no routine and no hope for improvement.  These prospects make life difficult to bear. Hopelessness has led many young people to become addicted to alcohol or drugs. No population group in Europe has to live in more inhumane conditions. On average, they die ten years earlier than other  Slovaks.

“In Uniform”, Jan Kraus

The series “In Uniform” examines the relationship between citizens and the state by portraying people working in the executive and judicial branches. Uniforms change identities; they demarcate and assign. A uniform symbolizes the separation between people and office – citizens and the state. At the same time, it blocks the view of the personality of the wearer. The work “In Uniform” attempts to reveal the private person, the person behind the uniform. The images open up a dialogue that examines stereotypes of state power but also raises questions about responsibility. Democracies are as vital as the trust citizens have for their institutions.  

The people shown are parents, lovers, musicians, Christians, Muslims, Jews, young and old, gay, transgender, some suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder due to their service, and they are all citizens.  

Jan Kraus‘ work is shaped by the New Objectivity. He attempts to show a contemporary image of Germany, in this case looking at citizens working for state institutions thereby negotiating and also commenting on the rise of right-wing parties in Germany. The pictures should be shown as a grid, underlining the character of a social study.

“Urban Tattoo – This is beautiful”, Jung Ui Lee

The surfaces of buildings are constantly changing. After the pandemic, many tenants unable to pay rent were forced to  leave, and new signboards appeared for the next hopeful business. While COVID-19 wasn’t the sole cause, it worsened  the situation. If I revisit a photographed location, I’d immediately notice the changes—some signs gone, others new. Each  signboard reflects someone’s hopes for success, making the buildings seem alive and ever-changing.

In South Korea, these brightly colored, chaotic signboards are often seen as symbols of a turbulent economic history. The  government has vowed to phase them out, and when they focus on an issue, change happens fast. So, I feel an urgency to  document them before they disappear. 

On the surface, the signboards may appear kitschy, but they represent fierce competition. They mirror Korean life—vivid,  busy, and eye-catching. Yet, with so many bold colors, nothing truly stands out, and the competition grows even tougher. Still, there’s something admirable in their owners’ determination. These signs, with their bold fonts and bright hues, aim to  draw attention and secure a livelihood. The unintended result is buildings that are vibrant and dynamic, far from the tragic  narrative often tied to Korea’s past. Through this project, I’ve come to see beauty in their energy. The signboards embody the  hard work and aspirations of Koreans striving for a better life. While I once agreed with efforts to remove them, I now argue  they deserve appreciation. These ever-changing surfaces reflect the indomitable spirit of South Korea.

“High in Feast”, Oleksandr Rupeta

Behind the front-line reports lies a country with its  daily life and a continuous effort to understand ho society found itself in war—and what can be done  about it. Spanning a decade of conflict, this project aims to start a conversation about Ukraine that  extends beyond the war. 

I started photographing Ukraine in 2014, coinciding with the Revolution of Dignity and the onset of the war, including Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and its support for the secession of eastern regions. This ten-year period has presented many challenges, both personally and for Ukrainian society as a whole. Capturing such an extensive period of conflict in a single, unified statement is an ambitious idea. However, I believe that highlighting the wide spectrum of life in the country contributes to the conversation about Ukraine, not just as a country at war.  

We need reasons to contemplate the future of  Ukraine and the changes that Ukrainian society should hope for. 

“Kim City”, Alain Schroeder

Pyongyang, North Korea. 

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains one of the most isolated and secretive nations in the world. Since its creation in 1948, the country has been ruled by three generations of the Kim dynasty descending from the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, followed by his son, Kim Jong-il, and currently under the control of his grandson, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.  It is a self-reliant socialist society based on an extreme interpretation of the cult of personality and devotion to the current and former leaders, fueled by a large dose of propaganda. 

The festivities honoring the 70th anniversary of the creation of North Korea on  September 9, 1948, include the opening ceremony of the Mass Games at the May Day  Stadium in Pyongyang. Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is in attendance. While the country is generally off limits to foreign media, this event is accessible to the press and tourists alike. 

Virtually the entire society has been called to service. It is focused on the sole objective of showing the world the caliber, merit, and talent of North Korea on display in both cultural and military domains. It is in this favorable, yet highly controlled, context that this story takes place. 

Visitors are shown only a confined area of Pyongyang, one of the modern high-risers in recently constructed districts of the city. Visits to the city’s national monuments are a required portion of the pre-determined, inflexible itinerary. Chaperoned and surveilled by two official government guides at all times is standard practice for foreign visitors.  You are told what to do, what to look at or not, and what to photograph. Shots of people working, carrying goods, or not well-dressed are forbidden, pushing one to show only an idealized vision of the city. The environment is controlled, and there is no choice but to follow the rules. 

So, when you look at the images, to paraphrase the Belgian surrealist painter Magritte:  This is not North Korea.

“Kolsky”, Tanya Sharapova

I was a passenger on a bus driving through the middle of a blizzard when we slid off the road into a snowy ditch. Rather than radio for help, the  driver made an announcement: “Everyone who wants to reach their destination is welcome to get out and push.”  This was one of my first impressions of Kolsky. 

The Kola Peninsula, or Kolsky as the locals call it, is a region in the far north of Russia bordering Finland and Norway. For Russia, Kolsky is not only strategic militarily, but also acts as a gateway to Russia’s ambitions in the Arctic, where fishing, oil, gas and mineral extraction play a critical role in the national economy. Since the Soviet era, nuclear submarines have been stationed on the peninsula, leveraging the region’s ice-free port access to the Atlantic. 

I first visited Kolsky in 2019 with the intent of creating a diary-like documentation of the region. Kolsky is over 2000 kilometers from Moscow, and I assumed that, because of its remoteness, the influence of politics there would be less perceptible. 

I was wrong. 

When I started the project, nothing felt unusual about the daily rhythm of life in Kolsky. Then, in February 2022, that all changed. The invasion of  Ukraine laid bare the extent to which totalitarianism has become entangled in the everyday, even in the farthest reaches of the modern Russian state. It also revealed the degree to which Russians are subjected to militaristic state propaganda, with few viable alternatives to counter those narratives in the court of public opinion. The parts of Russia most affected by this messaging aren’t places like Moscow or St. Petersburg; it’s greater Russia.  It’s places like the Kola Peninsula, where a new Russia is increasingly reliant on a familiar playbook of total allegiance to the state. 

This project seeks to document a shift in Russian society by focusing on one region’s transformation.  

It is a reflection on how a country that fought against an aggressor in the Second World War became an aggressor in the war with Ukraine.

“Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl”, Valentin Valette

“Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl” (2021-2024) focuses on the economic development and territorial planning of the Sultanate of Oman. It is situated in the midst of a monarchical transition period, between the reign of the revered Sultan Qābūs (1970-2020), characterized by unprecedented economic growth, and the takeover of power since 2020 by his cousin, the current Sultan Haitham. The project utilizes the concept of tomason in geography to evoke remnants of the past, while paying particular attention to foreign workers and their employers. “Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl” takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining archives, sound recordings, and medium-format photographs. The dual temporality of the project, spanning between past and present, reflects the glorious reign of Qābūs and the emerging rule of  Haitham, who now bears the responsibility of continuing the work initiated.

Detailed project description “Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl”  

On January 10, 2020, the Sultanate of Oman mourned the death of Qābūs Bin Sa‘īd a revered monarch whose fifty-year reign set an absolute record in the Arab world for longevity.  Throughout these years, Sultan Qābūs crafted a legacy as the founder of modern Oman,  dedicated to rapidly developing the country through oil wealth and inspired by the myth of  “Nahda” or “renaissance”. During his reign, while the migration of Asian workers continued to rise, the oil and gas resources were depleting. Shortly before his death, this situation led  Qābūs to conceive a new development policy known as “Oman Vision 2040”. Now, it is the responsibility of his cousin, the current Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq, to continue the work started.  

Between the end of a successful reign for Sultan Qābūs and the beginning of Haitham’s, “Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl” seeks to explore this period of monarchical transition, marked by an urgent need for economic diversification in the face of diminishing oil and gas resources. 

This photographic research invokes the past – the glorious time of Qābūs – by using a concept of urban geography, the “tomason”, as a tool to designate a singular category of objects,  spaces, buildings that intrigue us because they seem out of place, known to be remnants of the forgotten past. But what past? Why are they there? What were they used for? How long will they remain? These memory signs reflect the connection between space – that of territorial development – and time – that of Qābūs’s glorious reign – in nostalgic and memorial processes. 

“Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl” also delves into the lives of thousands of men, the workforce and builders of the country, mainly from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This project aimed to illustrate their major roles in the ongoing development policy while showing the prevailing lifestyles of Omani entrepreneurs and their families to create a dialogue between two categories of populations – those who employ and those who are employed. A series of portraits in diptychs – but not only – underline the connections and hierarchies embodied in this phenomenon of globalized labor migration.

“Episοdes”, Antigone Kourakou

My practice is a creative process that remains open to the stimuli that emerge during a photography session. I might be moved by a particular look, a pose that captures my emotions, or a detail that strikes me as beautiful and touching. All these elements come together to form an aesthetic reflection of my inner world — a personal realm where thoughts, anxieties, and desires find a place and are symbolically expressed.

Within a defined framework, I invite models—primarily women, often actors, dancers, and performers—to enter this world, take on a role, and transform themselves. This approach relies on improvisation, emphasizing spontaneity through collaboration and interaction, free from rigid guidelines.

I focus not only on capturing the human form, the movements of the body, and the sculptural poses of my models, but also on natural elements and the environment. This often leads to the inclusion of landscapes and still life in my work, presented in a less literal way. My main goal is to create a specific mood or atmosphere, rather than provide an exact or detailed depiction of the subject.

I aim to evoke a sense of the present that goes beyond a literal interpretation, to capture a deeper, more subjective reality embedded in an imaginative and symbolic context. I typically do not work in series or projects. Instead, my photographs are best seen as ‘fragments’ — pieces of a whole that is never fully revealed.

“A Modern Grand Tour“, Vasileios Papageorgiou

During the 18th and 19th centuries, many wealthy young Europeans of aristocratic background set out on journeys of exploration and intellectual discovery across the continent. The famous “Grand Tour” was a pursuit of classical and Arcadian ideals, seeking out ancient ruins as symbols that shaped Greek and European identity and laid the foundations of Western civilization. It created a vision that idealized the land of Arcadia as a paradise — an imagined lost world where people lived freely and happily in harmony with nature.

But this vision also produced an identity that, over time and through mechanisms of forgetting and selective memory, has emerged as a constructed utopia. Three centuries later, the question of Arcadian identity is still being revisited, opening up a kind of ‘blank space’ between the dreams of 18th-century travelers and the contemporary observations of a modern visitor.

This photographic work seeks to shed light on that empty space — the gap between the mythical Arcadia and its reality. It highlights the contrast between the romanticized ideal of a pure pastoral life and the fragmented modern provincial landscape of Arcadia, where today’s “ruins” stand alongside ancient ones.

This photographic exploration, as a kind of “Modern Grand Tour,” approaches a society that is forever struggling to define itself within an identity largely shaped by the eyes of outsiders and by the expectations of travelers who found exactly what they wanted to see. It is an identity unsettled each time a search begins — not for something lofty or transcendent, but for what is real and present. The photographic gaze seems adrift, seeking an ideal image of the Arcadian myth that it never quite finds, yet somehow is always there.

The photographs were taken in the regions once occupied by ancient Arcadia.

Photometria Φωτοbooks

Photobook Exhibition

Amorus Glances” – Alexandra Masmanidi

“Disthanees (Dead Twice)” – Christos Dimitriou

“Domestic” – Katrina Stamatopoulos

“Elephant” – Dimitris Mytas

“Far away from home” – Hristina Tasheva

“Human Activity” – Jana Palkina

“I Saw a Tree Bearing Stones” – Emilia Martin

“Imperfections” – Regina Maria Anzenberger

“Non Cycladia” – Odysseas Tsompanoglou

“Not all bald men with beards are Javier Talavera” – Javier Talavera

“Nowhere Tree” – Two Spiky Gorillaz

“Ondes” – Bénédicte Blondeau

“Paternity Ratio” – Giulio Favotto

“Roots & Waltz” – Regina Maria Anzenberger

“So Much Love” – Aleksandros Zafeiridis

“Summer Cancelled” – Adrienn Józan

“Synapse” – Eugenia Patsouri

“Terra incognita” – Spiros Zervoudakis

“The Inevitable Anguish of Desire” – Maria Denise Dessimoz

“The Lines We Draw” – Lavinia Perlamenti & Manfredi Pantanella

“Unveiling Between” – Konstantina Tsirogianni

“Who loves it” – Karol Jarek 

 “Win or Lose” – Yizhen Zhang

Photometria Photography Center (PPC)

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11

Thu. – Sun.: 17:00 – 21:00

Youth Collective 2025

curated by: Panagiotis Pappas

Group exhibition of the 16 best photographers of the contest Youth Collective 2025

Euthymia Athanasiou [GR]

Gabriele Barbagallo [IT]

Lida Theodora Veniamin [GR]

Stella Giannioti [GR]

David Figueiredo [PT]

Kooshan Nasr [UK]

Vasilis Nаstopoulos [GR]

Ilias Nikolarakis [GR]

Thomas Noonan [UK]

Alexia Pantelia [GR]

Vasilis Pastapas [GR]

Marios Portzoudis [GR]

Georgia Emmanouela Sinioraki [GR]

Elisavet Sykaminidou [GR]

Ariet Cela [GR]

Yoanna Walden [UK]

Hotel Olympic parking lot (external fence)

Duration: 27.9 – 30.11

“Entefxis Photography Network (EPN)”

Group exhibition of 21 photographic clubs of “ENTEFXIS”

Bleach Kollective – Athens

METApolis – Athens

PhotoExplorers – Athens

PhotoProletarii – Athens

SHASHIN LOVERS – Athens

Center for Creative Photography of Thrace – Alexandroupolis

FOA Fwtografiki Omada art.A’s – Arta

Photography Club of Veria – “Antithesis“ – Veria

Apellis Photography Group – Edessa

Out of Focus – Thessaloniki

FOSPI – Ioannina

FOTORASI – Ioannina

KAVALAPHOTOCLUB – Kavala

Corinthian Photography Club – Korinthos

Photographic club of Larissa – Larissa

 Livadia Library Photography Group –  Livadia

Paros Photo Club – Paros

PATRA’S PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB – IDIFOS – Patra

A.S.T.O. We Communicate – Patras

PTOLEMAIDA PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM F22 – Ptolemaida

KA.DRO. – Filippiada

Glikidon Square
Duration: 27.9 – 30.11