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"The
first visual recognition of the Roma world by those who until
recently had been merely a theme for photographers".
This was the final phrase in the text of last year's exhibition
catalogue. That first recording was hosted in an exhibition
of eighty photographs. A borderline was crossed when Roma
burst out of the pictures we were used to seeing until then
and took cameras in their hands. The revelation of a new world
emerged through their photographs. And that was a world that
had remained obscure to the photographers' eye for centuries.
When I first accepted to teach young Roma photography in the
framework of a project carried out by the Greek Ministry of
Culture, I could not imagine what was about to come. The experience
of that challenge was unforgettable for both parts, the young
trainees, I believe, experienced an unprecedented adventure.
They saw their surroundings through a different perspective.
Their feelings burst out and were expressed into photographs.
The workshop became second home to them. The relationship
established between us during a course of 360 hours in a period
of six months was really intense.
They learn quickly how to use the camera and photograph everything
around them by instict. Carried away by the pluralism of their
pictures, I observe their looks without applying rules, without
directing them. The course involves teaching of the basic
photographic techinques, developing black and white films
and printing in the dark room.
Thoughts, feelings and everyday situations gradually emerge,
take shape and acquire substance in the pictures. Light and
darkness, harshness coexisting with tenderness generate contradictory
emotions and, in that way, pictures carry us away to a different
wandering charged with questions and thoughts.
Stelios
Efstathopoulos
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The world of Roma has always been a very challenging theme for
photographers. Either occasionally or systematically, light-headedly
or seriously, with or without humanitarian stimuli, with or
without ideological or social awareness, through various motives
and rewards, photographers usually rush into the Roma settlements
only to return urgently to their own "normal" world,
which is ready to exhibit and appreciate their photographic
trophies.
These are some of the points I had focused on and worked out
in the past while studying Theory and Critical Analysis of Photography,
a field that examines the ideological and cultural mechanisms
of photography. I wonder now what will happen if Roma find themselves
behind the camera. What will happen if the up to now picturesque
subjects turn into photographers and we, the non-Roma turn into
an interesting picturesque theme for Roma? How will they illustrate
their own world? Will they adopt our own look or will they articulate
their own different "language"? And finally, what
effect will the use of this modern, powerful system of evaluation
and selective depiction of reality have upon Roma themselves?
Within the framework of the policy about photography that has
been implemented in the past few years by the Ministry of Culture
and, in combination with a policy focusing on the improvement
of the living conditions of Greek Roma, we were given the opportunity
to organize the first workshop in our country- and more probably
worldwise- of photography for young Roma.
The experience we gained was unique and invaluable. The photographic
output has been impressive and generated great satisfaction.
The theoretical questions expressed above have now found a realistic
ground for development and their ideological background is being
interpreted into experiences, action, new human relationships.
This unprecedented undertaking is a fact. Its development is
a fascinating challenge which I dare characterize as socially
and culturally revolutionary.
Nikos
Panayotopoulos
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