Inspired by the Danish-American photographer Jacob Riis, who lived in the late 19th century and died in 1914, photojournalist Giorgos Moutafis wants to show the public how «The Other Half» lives. «Jacob Riis created a series of photographs depicting immigrants living in squalid conditions in New York around 1890. Through his work, he influenced public opinion to the point where people came to understand how the other half of society survives. He inspired me—essentially so that we, too, can see the other half of society during these difficult times. »In this specific case, it’s the migrants who, terrified, are crossing or even dying at the border, as captured in this 15-year archive,” the photojournalist told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA).
The award-winning Giorgos Moutafis has covered the most serious humanitarian crises and conflicts in more than 25 countries around the world, and is currently in Kyiv covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has been on assignments in the Middle East, the Balkans, Africa, and Latin America. In recent years, he has been documenting migration with his camera, focusing his lens on the dangerous European routes that migrants take to cross borders, that is, national borders, which of course are not limited to Greece alone.
«The Other Half» was awarded the Youth Committee's Special Prize at the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (March 2022). «I wanted to bring to light stories we know only in fragments—stories of people who disappeared anonymously—and which, taken together, ultimately tell the story of the politics surrounding contemporary migration,» explains the photojournalist, whose work has been published in international media outlets such as TIME, Liberation, BILD, The New Yorker, CNN, and the BBC, among many others.
The camera reaches inaccessible places, capturing stories that transcend human limits in 72 minutes, with scenes that confront the viewer with another truth, from which they cannot look away. The documentary was produced with the support of the journalism organization iMedD, as part of the 3rd cycle of the iMedD Incubator.
On Saturday, December 3, and Sunday, December 4, photojournalist Giorgos Moutafis will be at the Danaos Cinema for a discussion with the audience following the screening.
