Silent Service: The Monks of Mount Athos

• Prize
  Bronze in Portraiture/Culture
• Photographer
  Mohammad Kamal, United Arab Emirates

This photographic series is the result of an immersive 4-day journey to the Mount Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece. The area is an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism, and is home to over 2,000 monks from around the world.

I chose to name the series ‘Silent Service’ as everything during my visit seemed to occur in hushed tones. The monks eat, work and pray in near-total silence, and often communicate in abbreviated, modest, and subtle gestures. Their lives are built on service, whether to a higher power or towards the community.