Myrto Papadopoulos is a photographer, interdisciplinary visual artist, and independent researcher based in Athens, whose practice centers on long-form visual narratives that explore how identity, belonging, and relationships to land are shaped, remembered, and transformed. Trained first as a painter (AUTh) and later in documentary photography (ICP) in New York, she develops her projects through sustained fieldwork and close collaboration with the people and places her work grows from. Her practice brings together photography, archival material, video, sound, text, and installation, and she holds a Master of Research in Hybrid Arts from the Ionian University.
Her projects include The New Plastic Road, released as a feature-length documentary co-produced with ZDF/ARTE and screened at Hot Docs and the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, among others; Spirits Unseen, shown in solo exhibitions at the Benaki Museum in Athens and the Silversmithing Museum in Ioannina, as a solo presentation at L’Abbaye Royale de l’Épau in France, and in the official sections of PHotoESPAÑA in Madrid and the Athens Photo Festival in 2019; Eleu Sis, shown at the Rencontres de la Jeune Photographie Internationale in Niort, France, and in HerStories at the MOMus Thessaloniki Museum of Photography; and The Attendants, presented at the European Parliament. Her ongoing project, Where the Water Flows, was presented as an installation at Depo Darm Gallery in Athens in 2026 and was a finalist for the PhMuseum 2026 Photography Grant. She was a fellow of iMEdD in 2019 and 2021, and was nominated for the Prix Pictet in 2018 and 2023, the Magnum Foundation Grant, and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
Her work has been commissioned by The New York Times, Time Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Bloomberg, The Pulitzer Center, National Geographic, and Dior, among others. It has been presented across cultural institutions, academic environments, and public forums, including TEDx, the European Parliament, and Princeton University’s Global Seminar.
/ Selected Exhibitions
2026 – Yeast Photo Festival, Lecce, Italy
2026 – Depo Darm Gallery – Where The Water Flows, Athens, Greece
2026 – PhMuseum 2026 Photography Grant – Finalist, Where The Water Flows
Screenings at Lodz Fotofestiwal, Kranj Foto Fest, and PhMuseum Days 2026.
2026 – Urbanautica Institute Awards 2025 – Where The Water Flows
2025 – The Silversmithing Museum Spirits Unseen – Solo – 17th International Photometria Festival & The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, Greece
2024 – L’Abbaye Royale de l’Epau Spirits Unseen – France
2024 – MOMus Thessaloniki Museum of Photography – HerStories” Photographic Practices 1974-2024
2024 – Art Residency Photoxenia in collaboration with the Mamidakis Foundation – Greece
2023 – The Benaki Museum Spirits Unseen – Solo, Athens, Greece
2023 – PHmuseum Days 2023 Eleu sis – Bologna, Italy
2023 – National Museum of Modern Art EMST – Foodprint exhibition, Athens, Greece
2023 – Rencontres de la Jeune Photographie Internationale, Rites of Passage, Niort, France
2023 – The Benaki Museum – Mystery 29, The Raw Museum – Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe, Greece
2022 – Athens Photo Festival, official section Eleu sis , The Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2020 – Athens Photo Festival, curator of The Journal, The Benaki Museum
2020 – Mediterranean Flux – Cultural center of Metropolis, Naxos
2019 – Athens Photo Festival, official section Spirits Unseen, The Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2019 – PHotoESPAÑA, Madrid – OFFLAND, Spirits Unseen official section, Madrid, Spain
2018 – TBLISI Photo Festival – Spirits Unseen, Tbilisi, Georgia
2017 – IDFA Doc Lab, Amsterdam
2016 – The Benaki Museum People On The Move – Athens, Greece
2016 – MedPhoto Festival, Crete, Greece
2015 – Tositsa Foundation – Metsovo 1900, Solo exhibition, Athens, Greece
2015 – Lishui Photography Festival – Metsovo 1900, China
2014 – EU Parliament – The Attendants, Solo exhibition, Brussels, Belgium
2013 – Flash Forward Exhibition – The Attendants, Toronto & Washington DC
2011 – Athens Photo Festival – The New Plastic Road, Solo exhibition, Athens, Greece
2011 – Dumbo Arts Festival – New York
2010 – LOOK3 Between Festival, Virginia, USA
2010 – Cedefop Photo Museum International Award
2009 – Festival Circulation(s) – Festival de la Jeune Photographie Européenne, Paris, France
2009 – Musée du Quai Branly
/ Selected Lectures
2024 – Athens Photo Festival 2024 / Head of LAB ” Sculpting Narratives” alongside Alexandra Rose Howland & Cloé Kerhoas Özmen
2015 – Present – Hellenic Centre for Photography, Athens, Greece
2024 – Key Lecturer and Head of Laboratory “Mystery 65 Reframe Elefsina” & Eleusis Culture Capital of Europe 2023, Elefsina, Greece
2023 – Guest Lecturer for Princeton University Global Seminar program, Athens, Greece
2023 – National Museum of Modern Art, EMST – The Footprint Project, Athens, Greece
2023 – The Home Project – The Foodprint Project, Athens, Greece
2023 – 6 x 6 Photographic Center, Limassol, Cyprus
2018 – British Council & Unicef – Visual Narratives & The refugee crisis
2017 – Arcadia University – On Journalism & Visual Narratives
2016 – Positive Voice & AMAKA – The Attendants & The Reflower Project
2016 – Mercy Corps -Visual Narratives & the Refugee Crisis
2015 – Save the Children – Visual Narratives & the Refugee Crisis
/ Artist Visits & Talks
2026 – Yeast Photo Festival, Lecce, Italy
2026 – Symposium, “Tinos 2030”, Greece
2024 – Guest at the photo department of The Athens School of Fine Arts, ASFA, Athens
2023 – TedNTUA, Athens
2023 – IRIDA VISIONS, Athens
2023 – IRIDA VISIONS /Moria, Athens
2019 – Athens Photo Festival, Athens
2018 -International Documentary Festival, Thessaloniki
2016 – Humanity in Action, Athens
2014 – Tedx Talk Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki
2014 – EU Parliament , Brussels
/ Selected Interviews
2023 Mataroa Magazine/ 2023 Greek National Public Radio/ 2023 Simio Art/ 2023 Messy Ethics in Human Rights Work-Published by UBC/ 2022 ERT National Broadcast Television “SYN GINAIXI” Documentary series on female profiles/ 2022 Collective Eye Podcast/ 2018 Greek National Public Radio – DOC on Air “The New Plastic Road”/ 2018 ERT National Broadcast Television TEKMHRIA ELLINISMOU “The New Plastic Road/ 2018 National Geographic Redefining Gender Roles (early stages of “Spirits Unseen”) 2017/ National Geographic / Inside the Harrowing Journeys of Refugee Mothers/ 2017-SPJ International/ 2016 VICE -on The Attendants/ 2015 – DIE ZEIT/ 2014 – ZEIT ONLINE
Greek media outlets: EL Culture, Ta Nea, Kathimerini, K Magazine, To Vima Magazine, Enet, CLOSE UP Magazine