The 8th edition of Athens Photo World, Greece’s festival-institution for photojournalism, expanded and significantly upgraded this year with the valuable support of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), was successfully completed on Sunday 1 March at Technopolis City of Athens.
The awards ceremony for the big winners, which brought the Digital Projections Weekend to a close, was hosted by the Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas and the event’s distinguished guest, legend of war photojournalism, Sir Don McCullin, who visited Athens especially for the opening of his exhibition “Life, Death and Everything in Between“,
held as part of Athens Photo World.
Watch video clips from the events of the Digital Projections Weekend HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X9WOEMuS44
The award ceremony for this year’s 4 finalists was held at the packed Gasholder 1 – “Miltiadis Evert” Auditorium of Technopolis City of Athens. The winner of the Athens Photo World 2025 Award is Angelos Tzortzinis, for his work “Landscapes of a Changing Environment”, while the Sports Photography Award 2026, launched this year by the festival team, was won by Alex Grymanis.
Earlier that day, as part of the Digital Projections, the audience had the opportunity to be introduced to the dynamics of contemporary documentary photography and to hear from the six Greek creators whose work had been curated by photographer Yannis Kolesidis, the coordinator of the Projections programme. On the first day of the event, Saturday 28 February, attendees enjoyed an extremely interesting discussion between Sir Don McCullin and APW’s General Coordinator, Christina Kalligianni. They then moved to the Old Retorts of the Technopolis to experience the striking images of the influential photojournalist at the opening of his exhibition “Life, Death and Everything in Between”.
The exhibition travelled from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Athens, where it was presented in collaboration with the Xposure International Photography Festival, one of the world’s largest and most important photography festivals, which this year named Athens the City of Honour.
“Starting in 2019 the stakes were high. The support of the late Yannis Behrakis, as this year’s Digital Screenings Weekend coincides with the seven-year anniversary of his death on 2 March 2019, was crucial and at the same time set the bar very high for all of us.
Over the past seven years, Athens Photo World has experienced many significant moments, all in pursuit of its founding mission: to promote contemporary photojournalism by established photographers, as well as emerging Greek and international talent.
This year marks a new step for us. Our collaboration with the Xposure International Photography Festival, hosting the exhibition “Life, Death and Everything in Between” by Sir Don McCullin and the Digital Projections Weekend showcasing the work of six young Greek photographers, as well as the Athens Photo World Awards, brought us closer to achieving our initial goal of introducing the public to the photographers and giving them the opportunity to meet the artists in person.
For us, the presence of Don McCullin himself in Athens and his openness to engaging with the audience beyond the discussion in the auditorium, was a deeply personal and human moment of great joy and pride.
The Auditorium “Miltiadis Evert”, which was packed on both days, evoked feelings of joy and awe. Responding to the audience’s expectations and making the most of the time they devote to you is always a challenge. We hope we succeeded.
This is the result of hard work and persistence, strengthening our network of excellent partners (through thick and thin) and the support of institutions that believe in our vision, such as the Region of Attica, the Municipality of Athens, the City of Athens Culture, Sports and Youth Organization (OPANDA), Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens and PPC, as well as the Ministry of Culture supporting our general actions. Finally, we would also like to acknowledge the cooperation and support of Kaizen Gaming, Paros Farming Community and Transfers4all.
For the future, we are planning even more initiatives, always with the same goal in mind and in the hope that we live up to the promise we once made to Yannis Behrakis.”
The Digital Projections Weekend marks the culmination of an organisation that began in 2025
with established outdoor exhibitions:
at the Railings of the National Garden (“Extreme Locations of our Planet”, June-August 2025), in collaboration with OPANDA,
at the Railings of Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall (“The Third Bell”, June-September 2025), dedicated to the work of photographer Thomas Daskalakis, as well as the photography contest for the Athens Photo World 2025 Award, which began on 10 October 2025.
The Digital Projections Weekend, which was launched in 2025 to become a staple of the festival, was hosted again this year at the Gasholder 1 – Auditorium “Miltiadis Evert” in Technopolis City of Athens, with the financial support of PPC, which supported vigorously, for a second year, the organisation of Athens Photo World.
The friends of Athens Photo World who were present at Technopolis had the opportunity to see up close:
The three (3) finalists of the competition for the Athens Photo World 2025 Awards, with works from last year: Eleni Albarosa (“The Last Pogoni”), Angelos Tzortzinis (“Landscapes of a Changing Environment”) and Nikolas Hatzipolitis (“Leisure Time in a Frame”), presented by Athens Photo World Artistic Director Thanassis Stavrakis, together with the curator and coordinator of the Digital Projections programme Yannis Kolesidis, and the General Coordinator of the Festival Christina Kalligianni.
The audience watched a short video of the winning entries and heard from Olga Stefatou, a photographer and member of the 2025 jury alongside Thomas Daskalakis and Nikos Palaeologos. She explained the jury’s rationale and their general evaluation of the competing photographic projects: “We hope that this award will contribute substantially and in the best possible way to the photographic careers of the finalists. The final selection is the result of a creative dialogue involving both agreement and disagreement, with the main selection criteria being the photographic language, the importance or originality of the subject at the time and its documentation through the accompanying text. We are particularly pleased that, for the first time in the contest’s history, one of the finalists is a female photographer. Congratulations to all three photographers, but also to all those who submitted entries.”
The grand winner, receiving the sum of three thousand euros (3,000), was Angelos Tzortzinis for his work “Landscapes of a Changing Environment“. Tzortzinis was presented with the commemorative award by Sir Don McCullin together with the Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas, who had earlier greeted the festival.
Among other things, the Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, said:
“What is happening here in Technopolis City of Athens has now become a global phenomenon. The work of the people of Athens Photo World can stand on an equal footing with top international events. Over the years, we have established an excellent collaborative relationship. We have hosted two outdoor exhibitions in the Railings of the National Garden in December 2024 and in the summer of 2025 on topics related to the challenges of our time, such as public health and the environment. And this summer, Athens Photo World returns to the National Garden with a major outdoor exhibition, from the historical archive of the Associated Press, dedicated to the World Cup from 1930 to 2026. We are looking forward to discovering the history of World Football together.“
Second in the final ranking and with the award of two thousand euros (2.000) came Eleni Albarosa, with her work “The Last Pogoni” and third, with the award of one thousand euros (1.000), was Nikolas Hatzipolitis, with his work “Leisure Time in a Frame“.
The three winners thanked the APW team warmly for organising the event and in addition to their awards, they received a special gift from Sir Don McCullin himself: a signed copy of his photography book “Life, Death and Everything in Between“.
At the same time, the winner of the Sports Photography Award 2026, presented by APW this year for the first time, was photographer Alex Grymanis, for his photograph of Olympiacos footballer Rodinei Marcelo de Almeida on 30 March 2025, during a match against Panathinaikos. In the image, the player is asking the team’s fans, who have their mobile phone flashlights on, to encourage the players. The other two finalists were Nikolaos Zagas and Michalis Themelis.
The award was presented by the photojournalist Aristotelis Sarrikostas. The juror Angelos Zymaras, sports photographer and photography professor, said about the selection of the finalists: “The three images stand out for the way they combine clean composition, perfect timing and a strong sense of movement. They manage to convey the energy and emotion of the moment without exaggeration, clearly capturing both the essence of the sports as well as the principles of photographic storytelling“.
Earlier the same day, photographer and APW team member, Yannis Kolesidis, curator and coordinator of the Digital Projections programme, presented the work of six distinguished photojournalists in a 45-minute slide-show.
The photographers (in alphabetical order) Alexandros Avramidis, Maro Kouri, Stelios Misinas, Socrates Baltagiannis, Kostas Tsironis and Nikolas Hatzipolitis (winner of the 3rd Athens Photo World 2025 award), were almost all present in the room to say a few words about their work and answer questions from the audience in the discussion that followed.
Finally, the second day of the Digital Projections Weekend started with the talk by internationally renowned photographer Enri Canaj (Magnum Photos), who said a few words about the very important free masterclass he delivered, as part of APW, to 14 young photographers. The masterclass aimed to offer a meaningful and creative educational experience to the new generation of Greek photojournalists.
The undoubted highlight of the two-day event was the presence of Sir Don McCullin at Athens Photo World, one of the greatest living photographers, an eyewitness of all the great events of our time, who documented, for more than five decades, war, poverty and human suffering with rare compassion and dedication. From London’s East End, he followed the trail of history to hurting places: Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon, Biafra and far beyond, returning again and again to conflict zones, not drawn by danger but driven by a deep sense of responsibility, something that was clearly reflected in what he confessed in the admittedly fascinating discussion with APW General Coordinator Christina Kalligianni early on the evening of Saturday 28 February, a discussion that opened with a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the Tempi train crash.
Among the many touching and sometimes shocking facts that the great war (and not only) photojournalist shared with the public, on the same day when, tragically, another large-scale military conflict had just begun, he said the following:
“What I did 50 years ago didn’t change the world. Today people who did nothing wrong will also die in Iran. War is the ugliest thing that humanity can get involved in.“
“I have seen some of the most awful things a person can do to another. The price is high.“
“Photographers are thieves. We steal images from the lives of others. I get more than I give.“
He also admitted that in recent years he has taken refuge in photographing natural landscapes, where he can spend hours without being disappointed “if the photo doesn’t turn out well“. The freedom provided by nature is enough for him. He also confessed his love for archaeology. He wished, he told us, that he had started his career as an archaeology photographer and that during his visit to the Acropolis Museum he felt “naked without his camera“.
Immediately after the discussion, Sir Don McCullin walked with the festival team to the Old Retorts for the opening of his exhibition “Life, Death and Everything in Between“, where he chatted for a long time with the audience, answering questions and signing his books, which had been brought along by those who already knew his work in depth.
*The exhibition will run until Thursday 12 March, with free admission,
Monday-Sunday, from 10.00 to 22.00.
Athens Photo World is back with its biggest outdoor exhibition of 2026, running from 29 May to 31 July, at the National Garden, along the railings on Vassilissis Sofias and Amalias Avenues.
Entitled “Football World Cup 1930–2026“, the exhibition showcases the historical photographic archive of the international news agency Associated Press, covering everything from the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 to the most recent tournament, the 2026 World Cup, set to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
This is the seventh outdoor exhibition at the National Garden organised by Athens Photo World, and the third by the Associated Press, following those in 2019 and 2024, presenting top photographs to tens of thousands of visitors every day, enabling the public to enjoy the wealth of photographic documentation in one of the capital’s most central locations.
The exhibition combines history, football passion and photographic excellence, offering a unique journey through time.
* * *
APW continues to invest in the power of the image and the importance of testimony, supporting those who document the world with consistency, sensitivity and journalistic integrity.
Outdoor photography exhibition at the Railings of the National Garden
Photographers: Agence France Press (AFP) Photographers
Duration: Wednesday, 25 June – Sunday, 31 August 2025.
Outdoor photography exhibition at the Railings of Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall
Photographers: Thomas Daskalakis
Duration: Wednesday, 25 June – Sunday, 14 September 2025.
