Immigrants'Odyssey

• Prize
• Photographer
  giorgos moutafis, Greece
• Studio
  Giorgos Moutafis
• Website
  http://www.giorgos-moutafis.com

Immigrants’ Odyssey is an ongoing long term project I began in
late 2007 in an effort to document immigrants’ perilous path to
Europe through its southeast borders.
Greece is considered as the steppingstone to Europe for
thousands of aliens, both refugees and migrants, who enter the
country in mixed migratory movements.
The country is believed to host almost a million immigrants; about
10 percent of the total population, nearly half of them are
undocumented migrants including a huge number of
unaccompanied minors. In 2011 the European Court of Justice
concluded that 90 per cent of all irregular entry into Europe was
through the Greek borders. Officials see Greece as the “buffer
zone of Europe”.
The Greek-Turkish (sea and land) borders are of particular interest
as it constitutes, today, the main entry route to southeast Europe.
Groups of bedraggled men, women and children from as far away
as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and various countries in Asia,
the Middle East and Africa arrive daily with the hope to find a
better future. Most of them are dumped on the Aegean Sea islands
by smugglers ferrying human cargo or try to enter through Evros
and the homonym river that separates the two countries and has
turned likewise the Aegean Sea to an aquatic grave for hundreds
of immigrants.

• Biography
  Giorgos born in Athens - Greece (1977) had his first encounter with photography at the 18+ Photography Team in 2006 and graduated from the Focus School of Art Photography in 2007. Today, based in Athens, he works as a photojournalist for some of the most renowned Greek magazines. His work has been published in Newsweek,Time, New Yorker,Foto8, Panorama, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel,Guardian,International Herald Tribune ,The New York Times,Courrier International. In 2009 he got the first prize in the Young Greek Photographers Contest and he was the finalist in Luis Valtuena Humanitarian competition. In the same year, he was also nominated for the Joop Swart Master Class. In 2010, he won the 1st prize in the Vilnius Photo Festival. His work has been presented in the Lodz Photo Festival, in the Photography Days Istanbul and in the Humankind - New York Photo Festival. Giorgos has worked in Libya,Kosovo, Gaza Strip, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia,South Sudan and Haiti