Photographing Greece by Amanda Hinrichs

Day 1: Arrive in Athens Day 2: Athens - Agora Day 3: Heraklion, Knossos Day 4: Agios Nikolaos, Phaistos Day 5: Chania - British War Cemetery Day 6: Athens - National Archaeological Museum Day 7: Corinth, Eleusis, Akrokorinth, Mycenae Day 8: Nauplion Day 9: Nauplion, Lerna, Mystras, Pylos Day 10: Pylos, Tholos Day 11: Olympia Day 12: Delphi - Oracle, Temple of Athena Day 13: Delphi - Osios Loukas Monastery Day 14: Athens Day 15: Athens Acropolis Day 16: Agina Day 17: Athens Day 18: Athens, Temple of Poseidon, Marathon Day 19: Depart from Athens

A photojournalism and graphic design trip to Greece worth three credit hours - yes, dream courses do exist. This summer, I, along with eleven other photographers and twentytwo art history students, took part in a three-week study abroad course in Greece through the University of NebraskaLincoln. It was amazing. This was my first time overseas, and yes, I do want to go back. Is tomorrow too soon? We left for Greece two days after finals week. I wouldn’t recommend leaving at this time -packing a year’s worth of dorm room stuff, the things I would be keeping that summer and a suitcase for another country is kind of a nightmare. However, it was nice because I didn’t have enough time to make assumptions or predictions about the trip. I didn’t have time to read all the travel manuals, watch all the “How to Not Get Motion Sick” videos, buy all the travel-sized everything’s. My trip was unique, as is this book. This book is an accumulation of my experiences - a compilation of what I learned, what I saw and how I felt. No movie, no class or lecture, and definitely no cheesy postcard, can capture “the true Greece.” That was not what I intended to do either. Instead, I wanted to capture my personal journey through Greece - the sights, the sounds, the smells. With my camera always by my side, I was able to document my surroundings, memories and experiences. These photographs convey how I saw Greece. This is my story.

Get the shot.

Get the shot. Do whatever it takes. Get the shot that captures an emotion, freezes time, paints a picture, speaks without words. Photography can do that. It can capture moments in a way that no other medium can. Greece is the perfect place for a beginning photographer. There are photo opportunities everywhere. Ancient buildings, rich in history, surround you. But how do you get a shot thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique? Thousands of people come to Greece every year, people from all over the globe. And generally, no matter where they come from, they come armed with a camera. And almost every one of them will leave with relatively the same photos as the person they sit beside on the plan. The Parthenon is photographed thousands of times a day. The pigeons, cats and dogs roaming the streets of Athens are easy targets for tourists wielding a camera. So what makes me, a student of photography, any more of a photographer than the average tourist? That is what I wanted to find out on this trip.

Uncovering antiquity The next time JOUR 498/898 is offered in Greece, it will not have the same schedule as we did. This trip was the inaugural outing for the class, so we partnered with another professor whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d taken art history and archaeology classes to Greece many times before. We followed his schedule - visiting all the great archeological sites and museums. While this was not particularly my utmost area of interest, I thoroughly enjoyed going to these sites. The history behind many of the places we visited was truly astounding. The ruins of ancient palaces, sites that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d read about in Greek mythology - we visited them all. You cannot pass up these places if you come to Greece.

Athens; Temple of Hephaestus

Agia Nikolaos; Mystras

Corinth; Temple of Apollo

Buildings in ancient Greece were designed with careful planning and decorated with immense care. They were not constructed with cranes and steel; they were made of carefully cut and carefully selected stones. Temples and palaces were designed to make the ordinary person feel small compared to the gods. Architects were also scultors - incorporating mythological stories into the pediments of important buildings. Statues were made to celebrate the human figure, honor the gods and beautify the cities; they had emotion, meaning.

Of all the places we visited, I found the monastaries the most interesting. Monasteries and churches were covered floor-to-ceiling with hand-painted frescoes and adorned with gold. Ever inch was carefully decorated. The people that visited these places were also equally intriguing. Peope that visited here took time to stop and think. They lit candles to the saints, took a moment to sit in silence. This was unlike the pace of the other sites we visited, which was usually crowded and chaotic.

Hidden in the details The things I found the most intriguing in Greece were the small things - the narrow roads that our mammoth bus somehow always squeezed through, the small trinkets sold along the hundreds of small shops crowded onto one street, the beautiful flowers decorating the streets. Each of these things is what makes Greece unique and wonderful. <<A kandylakia, a shrine found along roadsides, is built to honor those killed on roadways. However, they also mark lives spared. Families commission the building of each kandylakia, most resemble tiny churches and serve as a repository for icons, Holy Oil, and candles.

I took this photo on the very first day we arrived in Greece. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still one of my favorite photos. After twentysomething hours of traveling, we finally had a chance to explore Athens. On our walk, we came across a woman with a bucket of cat food and a ladle. As she walked, a string of cats started to follow her. She then began scooping the food onto a nearby retaining wall. Even more cats began to come out. As we were snapping photos, I noticed this cat - probably the ugliest of them all. His fur was dirty and he seemed angrier than the rest. But in this moment, the light shown behind this cross kitten just right and he looked almost angelic.

This is another photo I took on our first night in Greece. This small bar caught everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye as we walked through the crowded, tourist-populated streets of Athens. The wall of colorful bottles, lit from behind, seemed like a magical place. But when Allie and I set out again a few nights later, we could not find this place again no matter how hard we looked. We got lost in the tangle of winding streets and gave up looking. It will remain forever a mystery to us, I guess.

During our second week, we stayed in a new city almost every night. Each was different, unique and equally fascinating, but my favorite cities were the cities along the water. I especially loved the boats we saw. There are all kinds of boats in Greece - large sail boats for the wealthy to sail away on, fishing boats with old men looking for octopus, and commercial ships hauling passengers across the Mediterranean. Each boat, like most things in Greece has its own unique story.

The speeds of life The traditional way of life in Greece is slow - people sit and sip cold coffee all day and watch the people go by. Most businesses are open only open four days a week - you might find the owners on the beach on Monday afternoons. But Greece is also a country trying to survive in the 21st century, and for many, the speed of life is much faster. Business men work 8-5, seven days a week. They reside in large cities and keep full schedules. Teens go to crowded schools, live busy lives There are many divisions in Greek culture - different environments, different lifestyles. Greece is a blending of these things. The differences, the varities are what make it so wonderful.

<<One day, after enjoying a delicious Greek meal with the photojournalism team, we noticed a group of teenagers hanging out in front of brightly decorated wall. We approached them, and someone initiated conversation. The kids told us they were the artists of the graffiti. They were very proud of it. It was their gang they said, “but not like a bad gang” - just their group of friends, they said. They had painted their initials - showing off their work. We asked them if they got in trouble for painting this wall. They said no, the police only care if they paint on people’s walls - this was in a park. As we were getting ready to leave, they asked, in broken Greek, “You have Facebook?” They wanted their pictures put up so they could show their friends. >>I photographed these little boys while we were at lunch. Earlier they came by our table, played a tune, accepted our coins, then left. In this moment, I caught them as they laughed and played: just two little boys.

The most important thing about a meal in Greece is the enjoyment. Or the company. Ok, it’s the enjoyment of the company. No matter, the food of Greece is wonderful. Dinners are long and elaborate. They usually began with bread and wine followed by a Greek salad (tomatoes and cucumbers coated in olive oil, topped with a slice of feta cheese) for the table to share, the main dish, and finally a small serving of backliva to top everything off. We enjoyed those meals many nights, but on many occasions, we would skip all of this and just eat gelato for dinner. “When in Greece...” right?

a. Koulourakia b. Oranges c. Octopus d. Pizza e. Nescafe latte f. Souvlaki g. Gyro h. Gelato i. Tzasiki j. Bougatsa

One of the greatest parts about this trip were the many times we got up to watch the sun rise and stayed out to watch the sun set. However, these pictures appear a lot more peaceful than the process it took to get them. It takes about a zillion shots to get a “good” picture of a sunrise. But when you “get the shot,” it’s totally worth all the early mornings and late nights.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Rock.â&#x20AC;? This was our favorite place in Athens. From here you could see the whole city, watch the cars go by, the city start to lull to sleep. You could see the Acropolis, which we would not visit until the end of the third week, lit up beautifully. There were all sorts of people who sat up on the rock - young couples, rebellious teens, and us - silly Americans taking a break from their busy schedule to enjoy a lovely view.

From Hercules to H&M

As much as people pretend that they go to Greece for the ruins, the culture, the history - just as many could be honest and say they go for the shopping, the fancy dinners, the tourist things. Tourism is Greeceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s number one business. People from all over the world come to Greece. One of the most interesting things I noticed on this trip were the different people who surrounded me - people all searching for something different.

Mycenaeans and Minoans all held Greece at one time, but now a new civilization is taking over Greece - the tourists. From all over the world they come to see Greece firsthand. To appease the tourists, ruins are being shrunken down and sold as figurines. Ancient temples, centers of Athenian culture, are overrun with tourist groups. Many different people come to Greece each equally interested in how different the other cultures around them are. So Greece continues to give influence to the modern world serving as its own melting pot of world cultures.

Lessons learned I came on this trip to learn photography: composition, lighting, color, balance. I learned these things - I can tell my photos improved as the trip went on. But I also learned many other things while on this trip: I learned about people, about myself, about the world around me. >>I took this photo during a rest stop on our way back to Athens. When we got off the bus, a group of gypsy girls greeted us, smiling and asking for money. We gave them a few coins and shooed them away. I continued walking toward a church building that I wanted to photograph. I turned around and, almost on accident, snapped this picture of a woman and her young child. She was the mother of the smiling girls. She too asked for a few more coins. As I looked into her face, I saw something much deeper than I had seen in the girls who we had just early asked to move on. This woman, even though she spoke no English, spoke more to me in this moment than any other person or thing had that entire day. That is what I learned about photography - its ability to speak beyond words. <<A British War Cemetery on the island of Crete. This was another meaningful place for me. Hundreds of white headstones marked the graves of the men killed in the Battle of Crete.

People were my favorite thing to photograph in Greece. When we went to a site, I took a few photos of what we’d come to see, then I took pictures of the people - tourist and native. These are a few of my favorites. There are stories behind these photos. Like the third photo - while we were taking a bus from Agina back to Athens, on older Greek couple boarded the bus. This woman had trouble getting up the steep stairs by herself, so a few generous men pulled her onto the bus, literally. She then sat down with her flowers in a Coke can. I don’t know where she was coming from or where she was going, but she is a memory that I’ll keep forever.

As we were leaving the National Archeological Museum, the Greek Communist Party was just beginning to line up for their march around downtown Athens. As photojournalist students, we had to follow this story - this was history in the making! After taking a few photos, I talked with a two women who were selling newspapers covering the demonstration. Their English was about as bad as my Greek, so we didn’t communicate too well, but I did learn a few things from them. They were petitioning the government for more workers’ rights. Even if we couldn’t completely get the written details, we definitely captured some amazing images which tell a whole lot more.

One assignment we had during this trip was to shoot pictures of our partner. I had the pleasure of photographing the wonderful Allie Busch. We had a lot of fun shooting pictures of each other. We took most of our photos in the beautiful cities of Chania and Nauplion. Everything in Greece is â&#x20AC;&#x153;photo worthy.â&#x20AC;? Weathered, rusted gates and brightly colored walls made great backdrops. Allie also has an amazing smile so I had no trouble getting hundreds of great photos.

That's the shot.

I took over 4,000 photos while in Greece. So did I ever get “the shot”? Maybe. I have my favorites and other people have theirs. But I think the one photo I’ll treasure the most is a photo that someone else took. <<This photo of Jackie, Allie, Alexa, and I with the Parthenon in the distance is my favorite photo because it reminds me of all the fun the four of us had together. Some of the most memorable moments of this trip were spent with these ladies. They are true friends and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to meet one another. This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to take this trip. I got to see the world, experience another culture and come away with some great photos. This is one trip I will never forget.