Chrysa Panousiadou is a qualified photographer with an MA in Documentary Production from the University of the Arts, London, while she continues her studies in Philosophy and the Arts at the Open University of Britain. Born in Greece, she started her career in 1999. Since 2000, when she left for Palestine, she has worked with Gamma Press agency and the Athens News Agency.
Today, she lives permanently in London. Her photographs have been published in The Guardian, The Times, BBC On Line, Paris Match, Newsweek, L’Espresso, Fortune Magazine, Der Spiegel, The Herald, among others.
“My experience in Palestine compared to some other photographers, and Greeks, is very little in the war, but it wasn’t my intention to do war photography; nor was it ever my dream, but life brings it that way and I’ve finally realized that people in general have a lot of power within us,” she says, speaking to ellines.com about her experience in the war zone in Palestine, where she did a lot of important work.
Referring to the current situation in Greece for the photography industry, she said: “In Greece there are no jobs, we cannot be absorbed. There is no market to absorb us. We cannot return to Greece because there are no jobs for us.”
As for what Greece means to her, Chrysa Panousiadou answers: “Greece for me means family. That was the first word that came to me. It means chaos, it means humanity. This chaos in Greece is also human. For me to get angry and talk, to argue, to laugh, to shout is human.”
upd: 4/12/2024
Chrysa Panousiadou has returned to Greece and is the communications officer at Project Armonia, an organization that supports displaced and homeless people living in Athens. The support involves providing free food, training in the art of cooking and support in finding work in the catering sector. Chrysa has lived and worked abroad for over 15 years, with her main professional activity being photojournalism and documentary production. She lived and worked from 2000 to 2005 in Jerusalem covering, as a photojournalist, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then founded a documentary production company in London where she lived for 10 years, and from 2016 to 2023 she worked in various positions in Civil Society organisations working on the Refugee issue.