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Landscape of The Crisis

Nikos Pilos

2008 - 2013

After 6 years of zero growth and 1 out 3 Greeks living under the line of poverty, the country's landscapes have completely changed. About 30% of shops have shut down, and streets that used to bustling with life, are now filled with closed stores. The atmosphere feels heavy and people on the streets rarely smile. The streets are covered with graffiti's, as there's no money available to keep walls clean, while when natural disasters strike, due to the country's economic state, there's little it can do to help those affected. In their minds, people's only goal is to survive, making the society harsh and violent. The government's crack-down on anarchists, but also protestors that don't agree with the austerity policies has cast a cloud of fear over the city. Fear that leads to people turning to the extremes, like Golden Dawn. Immigrants are also victims of the crisis, as there are less jobs available. Immigrants with green cards are losing their legal status, as they're out of jobs. More than 4000 suicides have been committed, the past three years and the number of abandoned infants has risen. The middle-class is disappearing and the lower class is being squeezed. The problematic welfare state that existed before the crisis started is now absent. One third of the population is uninsured, while even those insured can't afford a doctor's visit for a simple cold and so they form big lines in the ER. Factories and historical businesses are shutting down because they can't compete with the cheaper products from the Balkans, while state assets are being sold very cheap and investors are not prosecuted when they pollute the environment. The economic crisis has taken over every aspect of daily life and it has turned into a political and social crisis as well.

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  • 11/19/2010. ATHENS, GREECE. A vase at the ground floor of Premiere Hotel. A historic hotel in the center of Athens that shut down after decades of service. Hundreds of employees were left unemployed. Unemployment has risen since to 27%.

  • 10/21/2012. Skouries, Chalkidiki, GREECE. Riot-police are chasing the locals that have been protesting against the mines in Skouries. The police chased protesters for 7 kilometers down the forest and many times brutally hit protesters.

  • 12/20/2008. ATHENS, GREECE. A burned car stands as a roadblock in Stournara street in front of the Polytechnic University, after a night of riots around the neighborhood of Exarchia. Athens is often rocked by riots.

  • 12/21/2010. THRAKI, GREECE. The train passes from these railways for the last time. This line was stopped due to budget cuts made at the state-train company, OSE. Now, the government is trying to privatise the state company.

  • 2/16/11 Komotini Thrace, Greece. A closed lubricant production factory in Rodopi, a region in northern Greece. The company went out of business in 2008. Hundrends of factories have closed throughout Greece, due to the crisis in Greece.

  • 2008. Two protesters wearing gas masks are kicking away a tear-gas canister.

  • ATHENS, GREECE. 2/8/2012. In the working-class neighborhood of Perama, unemployment can reach as high as 50%. People there live in small sacks and pre-fabricated houses. In the background, the port is being operated by COSCO, a state-owned Chinese company that despite the crisis, has been profitable.

  • 6/5/2011 GREECE, Athens: More than 100.000 Greeks gather in front of the Greek Parliament for a peaceful demonstrations, in response to calls for protests across Europe, on June 5, 2011. Greeks took to the streets of Athens on the 12th consecutive day of protests against the government's draconian austerity measures

  • 2/19/2010. LAVARA, EVROS, GREECE. One of the 60 houses of the village that were affected by the flooding. The state bankrupt, can not help the citizens get over the natural disaster.

  • 2009/05/04 AGATHONISI ISLAND, SOUTH EAST AEGEAN, GREECE. An improvised swimming belt used by one of the hundreds of refugees and immigrants that arrive at the eastern coasts of Agathonisi islet. Thousands of immigrants and refugees arrive in Europe through Greece, they're either from Africa or Asia.

  • ATHENS, GREECE. 11/27/2011. The view of the city of Athens. The Acropolis is in the back. Athens is a city built with no plan, along with the traffic this creates chaos daily.

  • 6/2/2012. ATHENS, GREECE. A small vigil left for a woman and her son struck by the crisis that commited suicide by jumping from the 5th floor. The shoes belonged to the woman that died.

  • 31/10/2010 ATHENS, GREECE. Corner of Menandrou and Sofokleous street. In particular spots downtown Athens, after sundown you can mostly come across gangs who engage in criminal activity.

  • 08/12/2008. Athens, Greece. The X-mas tree in Syntagma square, the Athens main square, is burning. Protesters threw a molotov cocktail on it and it caught fire.

  • 2/16/11 Komotini Thrace, Greece. The chair of the CEO of a factory that shut down because of the crisis. Hundrends of factories have closed throughout Greece, due to the crisis in Greece.

  • 27/10/2013 FARSALA, GREECE. A fire is burning on the side of the Roma camp, in the background the town of Farsala, where white Greeks live.

Landscape of The Crisis

Nikos Pilos

2008 - 2013

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