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Athens Photo Festival (International Month of Photography in Athens)

Athens Photo Festival (International Month of Photography), an event with a twenty two year history that was the major and oldest Greek institution with large-scale events focusing on the art of photography.

Athens Photo Festival has now completed a productive life cycle of twenty two years (1987-2009) as a fixture, full of memories of successful activities that helped provide a place for Greek photography on the international stage. With sixteen such festivals under its belt, it has already presented more than 500 solo and group exhibitions of Greek and overseas photographers and has run more than 200 parallel events, which include two major international photography conferences, lectures, showings, photography seminars, workshops and the first portfolio reviews organised in Greece; resulting in major exports for Greek photographic output – for the first time in its history – to important international events overseas (Mois de Photo à Paris, Primavera Fotografica, Houston FotoFest, Nice Audiovisuel, Israeli Biennale and so forth).

The first festivals held under the banner of International Photography Month in Athens highlighted the missions, ferment and change of direction that began to develop during that period in Greece; which would form the bases for expression of the new perception of and approach to photography that dominates to this day. The great success of these events has often created a stir that has caused major publications to include stories and photo essays on Greek photography in the international press and magazines. All this indicates the value of this institution and its significance as a part of cultural events.