The Photoxenia project is a platform for the hosting of photographers in Crete. The aim is to form a network of collaborating bodies in France and Crete to promote contemporary photography and create an alternative form of photographic tourism, with an emphasis on rural tourism. Our goal is also to build contemporary photography archives for Crete and establish a photographic collection for exhibitions and photo book publication. In the long term, we are planning a festival of work by European photographers.
The first Photoxenia residency was offered in July and August 2015, thanks to collaboration between the SCHS (Society of Cretan Historical Studies) and the Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Photographie (Ε.N.S.P.) in France. Having been hosted on Crete, student Guillaume Dellause was chosen to show his photographs at the Arles Festival in 2016. One photograph from Crete that features in the official festival catalogue marks the beginning of the photographer hosting platform on Crete (Une attention particuliere, in Rencontres d’Arles, ARLES 2016, p. 286).
During 2021, strong links are being forged with the Villa Perochon, a center for contemporary photographic art of national interest.Villa Perochon hosted two exhibitions by emerging Greek photographers: Angela Svoronou and Yorgos Yatromanolakis.
Since 2015 we have hosted 16 photographers from France, Spain and Greece. The scheme’s interactive character is backed up by a network of accommodation facilities and local authorities collaborating to establish photographic tourism. These synergies give rise to a new narrative on the land and its people, with photography as its channel. What characterises the resulting photography is polysemy, evidencing the photographers’ disparate paths and differentiated gazes. It is through this dissimilarity that people learn to be more dialectical and to accept others.
Crete is a place bound up with myths that still exert an influence on the culture and even the everyday life of the island’s inhabitants. It offers all the characteristics of a multifaceted photographic experience for contemporary photographers, which is now being put to good use by multilateral collaboration between Cretan local and regional authorities together with national and Eu-ropean organisations.
Photoxenia project, planner and curator: Maria Choulaki