The smallest international photography festival in the world
Every year since 2013, Antiparos has hosted what is arguably the smallest international photography festival in the world. This year the festival will take place from 7 to 16 July.
The festival was the brainchild of three people: Mairi Xatzaki, who runs the local ‘Anti’ art gallery; Yannis Bagourdas, an engineer and an enthusiastic amateur photographer; and David Frazer Wray, a long-time summer visitor.
“We wanted to give something back to the island,” says David. “Given our mutual interests, a photography festival seemed the obvious choice. I administer the Antiparos Photo Gallery on Facebook, which now has over 5,000 members – roughly five times the population of Antiparos – so we could all see how much interest there is in both the island and the art of photography. “
“We started on a very small scale in 2013, with exhibition space in the ‘Anti’ gallery and in an empty apartment lent by a kind friend. We featured work by local and Greek photographers and a few excellent amateurs from other countries. We were surprised at the amount of positive response – not just from summer visitors but from the locals too. They really appreciated our effort.”
“In 2014, we decided to upscale. We got permission to use the Kastro – the 15th century Venetian castle in the centre of Antiparos – and, for the first time, we exhibited work outdoors on the ancient walls. This brought a few problems. First of all, the Kastro had been neglected, so we had to clean it, paint it, and light it. And you can’t just lock the Kastro at the end of every evening, so all of the photographs had to be taken down, stored and then re-hung the next day – for 10 days! It was also very windy, so we had to tie the photographs to the walls with nylon fishing line! In fact fishing line is still essential.”
“But we had more international participation, and recognition. Our photographers were mostly professional or semi-professional and even renowned Magnum Photos photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov gave a workshop. But more important than that was the reaction of the locals. Not only were we visibly a serious festival but we had cleaned up the Kastro! People who had lived next-door to it for years were suddenly able to admire it in all its glory – and all thanks to a bit of cleaning, painting and lighting.”
“However, in 2015, our funds started to dry up. We had been lucky so far but finally the economic crisis had hit us. On the other hand, photographers were almost queuing up to take part. Our guest of honour that year was Vasilis Artikos – one of Greece’s most respected photographers. We had contributions from Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain and the USA but we had no money, even though we did manage to give our usual contribution to the local school.”
“We are now registered as an official non-profit association under Greek law, which enables us to apply for funding. This year we received our first grant from the Municipality of Antiparos, which has really enabled the festival to go ahead.”
“We’ve always believed in encouraging new talent and there’s so much talent out there. This year, most of our participants are Greek, but we will also feature photographers from Turkey, the United States and Norway. Our guest of honour will be Platon Rivellis, who is one of Greece’s most illustrious photographers and teachers.”
“What makes the Antiparos International Photo Festival so unique? First of all, that’s down to the island and the people of the island. It’s a special atmosphere. Secondly, as far as I know, we are the only international photo festival to exhibit in the open air. The Kastro makes that very special. But most of all, it’s down to love. The love that we share for the island, and the love that we have for each other.”