The brief was to highlight the fact that the majority of ROMA inhabit a rather unknown area of the city called Dendropotamos (Greece), where they live isolated. They have developed a personal way of life also unknown to the rest of the citizens. Thus, through a photo exhibition we could invited citizens of Thessaloniki to meet Roma’s children and understand their life style. Therefore, the idea of reconciliation was a crucial scope of this project.
The general idea was firstly to open up spaces for minorities to present their cultures to a broader audience and secondly to stimulate the curiosity of this audience to visit the exhibition. The more specific idea was to bring this isolated and marginalized area that citizens are usually afraid to visit it even for their business visualized in the center of the city. In this way it was believed that different kind of perception for Roma would be removed and the negative attitude towards them would be shifted.
Concerning the actual event, five employees of City magazine – a well – known journal of Thessaloniki – i.e. two PR employees, a copywriter, the project leader that was me, and a museologist along with five free lancing photographers and twenty volunteers of the organization ‘Faros tou kosmou’ (Lighthouse of the World) participated in a photo shouting in Dendropotomos.
The photo shouting lasted six months taking place in the isolated neighborhood of ROMA and photographers were free to approach the subjects with their own style. A selection of those photos were presented in a photo exhibition in the central museum – situated in the historical center of the town - called History Museum of Thessaloniki.
When the photo shouting ended the next step was to promote the project via posters, flyers, the magazine, the TV and radio. The exhibition of this work was homed by History Museum of Thessaloniki; the presentation started in July and ended in September 2013 called ‘In the West of the City’.
My greatest achievement so far in my career would definitely be entrusted with the management of a photo exhibition devoted to the children of ROMA. The aim that was accomplished was double. On the one hand was related to raise brand awareness for the CITY magazine and on the other hand raising social awareness for the ROMA society. My role was significantly diverse since I had to source sponsors, coordinate different groups of volunteers, and creating tailored marketing strategies.
The names of the photographers are Nickos Sachos, Kostas Tatsis, Karolos Xristidis, Moisis Avramidis and Valantis Nikoloudis. These are the artists of the photos that are presented in this inspiration page. The project of the aforementioned photoshouting was a creative idea of the CityPortal's team .