Magnum photograph

 

ALBANIA. Kosovo refugees. 1999. Kukes 30/5 1999. Refugee camp of "Médecins sans frontières" (MSF) Doctors without Borders. Young member of UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army).

Nikos Economopoulos

For my magnum photo I decided to focus on a photograph by Nikos Economopoulos.

Nikos Economopoulos is a Greek photographer who was known for his magnum photography in the Balkans and Greece. 

I love this photo and I found it very interesting.  What I love about this photograph is that you are immediately drawn to the eyes but then quickly drawn to the boy in the background.  I think the way that the photograph was framed is extremely beautiful and striking.   I love the symmetry that Economopoulos creates with the metal bars and how they frame the hat.  Everything from the small details in the hat and the tents, mountains, and children in the background hold my attention for a long period of time.  When I look at this photograph I can not stop staring.  My guess is that the person in the hat is a doctors without borders volunteer and we are looking at his impact through his eyes.

I thought this quote from Platon Rivellis explains the power of Niko Economopoulos photographs.

“In Economopoulos' photographs, a smile, a tilt of the head, an unusual leap, a look, from being insignificant details from the second level of everyday life are re-evaluated and transformed into major photographic events.” In this photograph he makes something as simple as eyes extremely moving and powerful. 

Platon Rivellis, "Nikos Economopoulos: Insignificant Events in the Service of Visual Poetry", introduction to Economopoulos: Photographer, p.25.