George Georgiou
| George Georgiou | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1961 (age 55–56) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Spouse(s) | Vanessa Winship |
| Website | www |
George Georgiou (born 1961) is a freelance British photographer and photojournalist best known for his work in eastern Europe, particularly Turkey.
Born in London of Greek Cypriot parents, Georgiou graduated in photography from the Polytechnic of Central London.
Georgiou's work has focussed on communities split between different cultures. After working for six years in Serbia, Greece and eastern Europe, he was recently based for four years in Istanbul. His work in Turkey led to a series of photographs titled Fault Lines/Turkey/East/West, which has led to several exhibitions and a book. Georgiou has also taught photography at Barnet College in London and a number of workshops in Europe.
Arriving somewhere new, Georgiou's approach is first to unburden himself of preexisting images of the place and to try to see through superficial differences with places he knows; he then looks for commonalities and actual differences. He starts by himself and only when well underway hopes to attract commissions and make sales.
Georgiou's early work was in black-and-white but for Fault Lines and subsequent work he moved to colour, using a compact camera with an articulated LCD that may be viewed from above, like the ground glass screen of a twin-lens reflex camera; this is because he believes it less intimidating for the people photographed than a camera held to the eye.
Georgiou belongs to Panos Pictures. His noncommercial approach has presented challenges; speaking in 2009, he described himself as having large debts but remaining optimistic.
Georgiou had long been curious about Turkey, and when his visit to Istanbul in 2003 coincided with bombings he determined to learn more about the issues involved. The eventual theme to his work in Turkey gradually emerged as he observed bleak new collective housing springing up for an incongruous urbanisation of the rugged Anatolian plateau. The resulting work, Fault Lines/Turkey/East/West, explores the notion of an East/West division and the additional and complex fault lines – religious/secular, tradition/modernity, and more – that cross the Turkey of today.
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Wikipedia