New Athenians

The project: two months on the streets every day, shooting full-length portraits ‘in situ’ of an unexpected Greece – foreigners who’ve migrated here, coping with relocation and a strange language, sending their kids to Greek schools; along with Greeks who don’t conform to traditional visions of what the society should be. The focus is on younger Athenians transforming the capital – beyond the financial crisis, Covid, and the flood of refugees. The change is dramatic: a spirit of rejuvenation is lifting rundown areas out of malaise with new bars full of grunge, neon and disregard for convention. And always the graffiti, often tongue-in-cheek: ‘Berlin is the new Athens…’ What makes a ‘new Athenian’? In a word, diversity. In the backstreets you’ll see Indian and Middle Eastern stores, many started by refugees, while Chinese unbundle huge cartons of imported clothes – bound not only for Greece but all of Europe – and street vendors from Nigeria and Somalia and Pakistan and Sri Lanka sell everything from shoes to watermelons to kids’ balloons. You’ll hear them speaking not only Greek but Mandarin, Hindi, Tamil and Arabic. People create a city - and in Athens, humanity is on full display. There’s always something to see if you keep your radar on…