Nikos Panayotopoulos was born in Exarchia in 1945. He studied photography in London (BA, Polytechnic of Central London) from 1974-77 and obtained a PhD in Arts and Humanities specialised in photography (PhD, University of Derby) in 2008. He is a founding member of the Photography Centre of Athens (1979-2004). As a consultant to the Ministry of Culture, he coordinated the formulation and reform of the institutional framework for photography in Greece for a decade (1994-2004). He was a member of the working committee that drafted the National Policy for Art Photography for the Ministry of Culture (1994-95), and an Independent Expert at the European Commission (since 1999). He has published a significant number of theoretical and critical texts, organized and curated photographic exhibitions, seminars, workshops and research projects, and has organized and/or participated in conferences and workshops. Since 1978, his photographic work has been exhibited and published extensively in Greece and internationally (Europe, USA, Israel, Turkey, China, USA, Turkey). He taught Art Photography at the Department of Photography of TEI Athens from 1986 until 2012 when he retired as Associate Professor.

In 1982, he photographed the Psychiatric Hospital of Leros as part of a photographic assignment for the magazine Tachydromos, exposing the horrific conditions at the facility; the publication of the images prompted the drive for reform and a process of de-institutionalization.

(See also: https://press.ert.gr/tv/ert1-istorikoi-peripatoi-leros-exoristoi-sto-aigaio-a-kai-v-meros-20-amp-27-02-2020/)

Penelope Petsini was born in Bucharest, 1973. Studied Photography in Athens and UK (University of London, Goldsmiths College –MA in Image and Communication; University of Derby –PhD) sponsored by the State Scholarship Foundation (I.K.Y.). She is a Doctor of Philosophy in Arts and Humanities, specialized in photography. Her research interests, both in terms of theory and practice, focus on photography and its relation to personal and collective memory, history and politics. She has exhibited and published extensively both in Greece and internationally. She curated a series of photography and visual art exhibitions, the most recent being “Another Life: Human Flows | Unknown Odysseys” (Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, 5-11/2016) and “Sites of Memory” (Benaki Museum, Athens, 6-7/2016). She also curated Photobiennale 2018, that is two international group exhibitions at the Museum of Photography and the Center of Contemporary Art/ MOMus entitled Capitalist Realism: Future Perfect | Past Continuous (28/9/2018 – 29/3/2019, Thessaloniki), and the eponymous book (University of Macedonia Press, 2018).  Recent publications also include Sites of Memory: Photography, Collective Memory and History (Athens: Hellenic Center of Photography & NEON Foundation, 2016); the collective readers Censorship in Greece (Athens: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2016) and Companion of Censorship in Greece: Weak Democracy, Dictatorship, Metapolitefsi (Athens: Kastaniotis, 2018) co-edited with Dimitris Christopoulos; and Photography and collective identities: Greek Photography Studies I (Athens: Koukkida 2021)and Photography and the anthropological turn: Greek Photography Studies II (Athens: Koukkida 2023( co-edited with John Stathatos. 

She has had affiliated appointments as lecturer of photography theory and contemporary art since 2004. Since 2018, she is lecturing in the MA course “Censorship: Interdisciplinary approaches” in the Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University, Athens.