THE REFUGE- Covid in 55 square metres

• Prize
  Bronze in Press/Feature Story
• Photographer
  Nikos Pilos, Greece
• Date of Photograph
  2020
• Studio
  freelancer
• Socials
• Website
  http://www.nikospilos.com

More than 500 people from 30 different nationalities have found a refuge in a derelict housing complex of 228 apartments - 55 sq.m. each - in downtown Athens in what is probably the largest residential squat in Europe. Homeless, refugees, ex-addicts, ex-convicts and political activists have created an unlikely community where everyone is welcome and all issues are resolved in solidarity - from hijacking electricity from the urban grid to resolving personal conflicts. Today, when COVID-19 is exposing inequalities of the past, this unexpected neighboorhood teach us why communities matter.

• Biography
  Nikos Pilos is an award-winning photojournalist and one of Europe’s noted feature photographers. He has traveled extensively to document war, natural disasters, poverty, socioeconomic struggle and cultural shifts. His work regularly appears in leading international newspapers and magazines and has been exhibited throughout Europe and U.S.Since his first assignment in Lebanon in 1988, he has covered almost all the major historical events at Balkans, Middle East, Maghreb and Eastern Europe. The last two years he is dedicated into the realization of the cross media interactive platform THE REFUGE
• Awards
  LATEST AWARDS POYi. 2020 Award of Excellence in category, Documentary News Reporting, with the short doc The Refuge. Global Migration Film Festival 2019, 3rd place at the category Shor film ,with documentary“Dying For Europe PriMed 2018 International Festival of Mediterranean Documentary and Reportage France. Public Award with the documentary Dying for Europe. World Press photo 2017. Category: short film, second place with the documentary Trapped. POYi ,2016 Category: Exodus, second place with the story The Road Of Tears. POYi, 2016 Category: Multimedia News Story, third palce with the story, Dying to enter Europe. Px3 Paris Photography 2015, Bronze metal for the story “Alevi, The Unknown People”. Fotovisura Grand 2014, Finalist for the story “Seven Years of Recession”. Px3 Paris Photography 2014, Gold medal for the story “Dying for Electricity” and Silver medal for the story “Turkey Reacts”. NPPA 2014, Honorable mention for the story “Turkey Reacts”. POYi 2014, Finalist in the World Understanding category for the story “Greece, Seven Years of Recession”. Lucie Awards, 2013, Finalist for the story “Greece, Seven Years of Recession”. PX3-Prix De la Photographie 2013, Gold medal in the Portraits category for a photograph of a member of the Golden Dawn. CHIPP - China International Press Photo Contest 2012, Award in the Economy Science & Technology category for the story “The coal mines”.