KOSMAS EMMOGLOU
Most of the project’s photos are from the Agia Sofia settlement and some others are from Nea Mesimvria and Nea Magnisia villages, all near Thessaloniki Greece. They cover about four years of photographic work between 2012 and 2016. Through these years, I had the opportunity to create special relationships with the Roma community, to get connected with them, to enter their homes, to live and imprint the changes to their lives.
The pictures are creating a dialogue between persons and places. Young girls ready to get married are dressed with their better dresses because they want to give the photo to their future husbands. Couples, children, Roma mothers and fathers pose in front of the camera, they participate to the procedure and they offer to the photographer their best picture. Also the babies are something very remarkable for them and they want to have their photos.
Through a procedure of lending, influences and rejections it seems that the Roma have included to their traditions the elements which are more accessible, functional and meaningful to them. This is obvious to the decoration of the houses, the clothing and even though to the way they express their religious feelings. Their traditional values go together with the western way of life. This combination of the tradition and the modern ways is characteristic in this project.
All images © Kosmas Emmoglou
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