In Evros, a remote, yet important, agricultural area in the north-eastern region of Greece, bordering Turkey and Bulgaria, ties to nature, religion and folklore are still strong. Nonetheless, this traditional lifestyle is threatened by rural exodus, since the young people aspire to another way of life, but at what price?

The Pythio Project is meant to be an exploration into the father's homeland, through the lens of a second generation immigrant daughter, whose underlying concern has been to understand the motives for successive exodus from the area. The project combines photos, texts, interviews and videos. The first part consisted of a short multimedia project, which, through the portraits and interviews of five inhabitants of the village, gives a glimpse of todays’ life in Pythio. It resulted, in five short videos for the web and a long version of the video, available for screening at locations (on request).

The main body of work is still in progress and consists in a photo series chronicling the photographer’s two-year journeys to the region. It is planned to be completed in the course of 2013 and to be presented in the form of an exhibition and a book.

The project has also been expanded with a short fictional photo series, For a Fleeting Moment. Between fiction and reality, this series of staged photos gives evidence of the state of dilapidation and the loss of purpose of the elementary village school of the village, closed today due to the inexorable decline in attendence. With the help of native Pythio children, now studying in the towns and cities of the country, I wanted to revive this empty place steeped in history, to discover with them the abandoned objects, ultimate signs of the age-old learning process, recapturing a common heritage and bringing the building back to life for a fleeting moment.

Vaya Sigmas is young photographer from Greek-British origins, born, living and working in Brussels, Belgium.
www.vayasigmas.com