Nikos Kokkas
Nikos Kokkas was born in south-western Germany, near Stuttgart in 1972. He grew up in Thessaloniki but his family immigrated to Germany for a second time when he was 15 years old. That functioned in a way as a “new beginning” in his life and that was the point where he started expressing a growing interest on travel and photography simultaneously. He bought his first SLR camera, a Minolta X-700 by the age of 16 and started discovering the endless aspects of light, in colour and B&W. Carrying a camera on a daily basis, it started being obvious how his life would proceed. Self taught and having already travelled a lot in Europe, “camera in hand”, he returned to Greece in 1995, to Athens, with only one aim: to start working as a freelance journalist and photographer.
With a growing economy in the press at the time, and speaking three foreign languages, English, German and a little French, Nikos started producing and publishing his own subjects. His topics which drew inspiration from Greece and other parts of the world ranged from architecture and interior design, to travel and social issues. So far he has produced and published over 60 travel and social issues from Greece, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Germany, U.S.A., Israel, Panama, Zambia, England, Ireland, Oman. He was a member of the Greek edition of National Geographic Magazine, having produced 6 subjects from different places in Greece with a certain point of view. A few years ago, he also developed an interest in portraiture making it a very important part of his work until today. He has collaborated with numerous major Greek magazines and newspapers. Part of his work can be seen on his website www.nikoskokkas.com , on facebook Nikos Kokkas and the facebook group Nikos Kokkas’ Pictures.
He lives in Athens.
Menelaos Myrillas
Born in Patras, Menelaos was attracted to photography in a young age. He traveled the world and was lucky to learn the fundamentals about photography by some of the best in the field. He cooperated with the most important Greek Magazine titles and quite a few international ones. He is known for the storytelling character of his work that derives from his need to add both past and future references in present moments. Although inspired by the masters of photography Menelaos is often using modern techniques in order to accomplish a contemporary result.
He was influenced by: John Loengard, Richard Avedon, Robert Doisneau, Dave Hill, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Karl Barks, Alfred Hitchcock, Karl Marx and Marx Brothers, DaDa, by flemish painters especially by Johannes Vermeer and some others...
Top tip: Proffessionals talk mainly about the money and prizes, amateurs mostly about the equipment. Real photographers talk mainly about the light.
Nick Paleologos
Nick (b. 1983) is a photojournalist, editor and journalist and member of the Union of Photojournalists of Greece.
From 2005 to 2013 he worked for the Icon Press photo agency, covering the political and social news of the country for that tense time period. Since 2014, as a co-founder of the SOOC photo agency, together with a group of significant photographers, he combines everyday photojournalism with visual narrative.
Through this agency he covers the issue of the refugee crisis, following the flows of refugees from the Aegean islands throughout Greece and Central Europe, and participates in the photographic exhibitions and the photo album “The Itinerary” as well as in the publication of the Rosa Luxemburg Institute “No Direction Home “. At the same time he collaborates with foreign media (Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, In These Times, The Nation, New Republic, AFP, etc.) by photographing and writing.
Socrates Baltagiannis
Socrates is a documentary photographer born (1979) and based in Athens, Greece. Apart from his commissioned work, which often lies between editorial and assignments covering news, humanitarian crisis and current affairs, his personal work is multifaceted, dealing with subject matters not necessarily popular but always with an eye on social issues and how people are affected by society, the environment and vice versa.
Many of his images have been published in prominent newspapers and journals worldwide, such as the Wall Street Journal, Der Spiegel, MSNBC, the Guardian, Courrier International, Internazionale, LePoint, Le Temps, Stern, La Croix, Die Zeit and FAZ among others. He works freelance for dpa (German Press Agency) and from 2015, he has been working closely with organizations such as the UNHCR and IFRC, documenting the refugee crisis in Greece. He is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and a member of the Frontline Freelance Register. On June 2018, he took part at a "Hostile Environment & First Aid Training" hosted by 1st Option safety group.
In 2016, part of his work on the refugee crisis was included in a book published by the Greek office of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation under the name “No Direction Home”.
Joanna Skiftou
Joanna was born in Athens and studied in London, where she attended the BARKING COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY and received a DIPLOMA IN DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY with a focus in ARTISTIC and TECHNICAL photography. Joanna’s major in her studies was in AERIAL photography, enjoying the thrill and challenge of taking shots from small planes and helicopters.
She spent a few years in London where she expanded her photography skills by working in the fields of mass media, news correspondence and photojournalism. While in the UK, Joanna trained with REUTERS Television on Master Control Room Operation, news and broadcasting management. Also, she worked as an assistant radio producer for the Greek Section of the BBC World Service, as well as a photographer and correspondent for several foreign magazines in London.
After her return to Greece, Joanna joined SKAI Television, as the station's helicopter news head camera operator, providing video and still coverage of daily news. All through her years in Athens, Joanna has been working as a freelancer and occasionally teaching. Joanna has taught photography at LYKOURGOS STAVRAKOS School, cinematography and video at CAMPUS COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES as well as short photography courses at INTERGRAPHICS.
Joanna has done significant work in industrial photography for major oil & gas clients based in Greece, such as Hellenic Petroleum, EKO, ETEKA and CORAL GAS. Although putting on safety gear and climbing up high in an industrial tower in a refinery can be exciting, this does not mean that Joanna does not enjoy working on more tame subjects and assignments, ranging from food photography, to live events and expos, as well as on her own favorite takes, which are landscapes and bits and pieces inspired from her regular walks in the historical center of Athens.
Orestis Seferoglou
Orestis was born in Athens.
He has participated in a series of Workshops and Masterclasses by top-class photographers from Greece and abroad, including Anders Petersen, Chris Morris, Davide Monteleone, Stefano De Luigi, Pavlos Fysakis, Kamilo Nollas, in collaboration with the ICP in New York. In 2014, Orestis was selected for the 7-month International Masterclass by VII Photo Agency in Milan. In 2017 he participated in the “Dust Breeding” Culture and Development Laboratory of Photographic Project at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) by photographers Yorgos Karailias and Yorgos Prinos.
Seferoglou started his career as a staff multimedia photojournalist in Eleftherotypia national daily newspaper and EPSILON magazine. Furthermore his photographs have been published in vari- ous greek and international magazines such as MONOCLE, Die Welt BLAU Magazin, enorm magazine, WOZ, K magazine, BHMAgazino, METRO, Aegean Airlines BLUE, Gastronomos and more. He is also collaborating on photographic projects with in- ternational humanitarian organisations such as CARE, SolidarityNow and HumanRights360.
Orestis’ work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including : Athens Photo Festival, Medphoto Mediterranean Photography Festival, Docfield Barcelona, Menontrenuno Sardinia, Fes- tival Territoires en Images Paris, Kythera Photographic Encounters, The Hunt Museum, TEDxA- thens, LSE, King’s College London.
In 2016, he was nominated for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. In 2018 he was invited as a speaker at the official TEDx event of the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (TEDxPanteionUniversity) to present his work on immigration and racism.
To this end, we also support and promote small-scale tourism, and we have developed our photography holidays and tours along the principle that every single detail is of the utmost importance. Accommodation is in beautiful lodgings of regional architectural style; freshly-prepared meals will give you a taste of the finest local cuisine; photo locations are hand-picked by our professional photo instructors. And I am there throughout your Greece Photo Workshops vacation to ensure that all arrangements run smoothly.
