George Georgiou

George Georgiou (born 1961) is a freelance British photographer and photojournalist best known for his work in Eastern Europe, particularly Turkey.

Career in photography Born in London to Greek Cypriot parents, Georgiou graduated in photography from the Polytechnic of Central London.

Georgiou's work has focused on communities split between different cultures. After working for six years in Serbia, Greece and eastern Europe, he was recently based for four years in Istanbul. His work in Turkey led to a series of photographs titled Fault Lines/Turkey/East/West, which has led to several exhibitions and a book. Georgiou has also taught photography at Barnet College in London and a number of workshops in Europe.

Georgiou's early work was in black and white, but for Fault Lines and subsequent work, he moved to colour, using a compact camera with an articulated LCD that may be viewed from above, like the ground glass screen of a twin-lens reflex camera; this is because he believes it less intimidating for the people photographed than a camera held to the eye.

Georgiou belongs to Panos Pictures.

Turkey

Georgiou had long been curious about Turkey, and when his visit to Istanbul in 2003 coincided with bombings he determined to learn more about the issues involved. The eventual theme of his work in Turkey gradually emerged as he observed bleak new collective housing springing up for an incongruous urbanisation of the rugged Anatolian plateau.

Adam Stoltman wrote for the New York Times that in Fault Lines: Through a series of haunting architectural and landscape scenes of Turkey's rush toward modernization – and the resulting tension between the secular and the modern – George Georgiou has visually put his finger on a kind of listless alienation which at times can seem to pervade globalized society. individual aspects of the two very different countries, and aspects common to them through their shared history in the Soviet Union. Pictures of the Year International, prize for "Bombing Victim" (2003) World Press Photo: Award for "Flour War" (2004) Project Assistance Award from Nikon and the British Journal of Photography (2010) With an introduction by David Campany and a short story by Vanessa Winship.

With contributions by Georgiou Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. (hardback). London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. (paperback). Edited by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren. Unseen London. London: Hoxton Mini Press, 2017. . With photographs by and interviews with various photographers, and text by Rachel Segal Hamilton.

Exhibitions (with others) 2011/2012: New Photography 2011, Museum of Modern Art, New York. With Moyra Davey, Deana Lawson, Doug Rickard, Viviane Sassen and Zhang Dali. Last Stop, Le château d’eau, pôle photographique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France, January–March 2015. Exhibited alongside Voyage Mélancolique by Vanessa Winship.