Rea Papadopoulou | The Girls Are Sleeping Upstairs

At a time when girls have had little or no access to education, a boarding school run by nuns in a small Aegean island was accepting girls of aristocratic families from Europe and Middle East, along with local students and orphans regardless their religion and doctrine. Now the school doors are closed, but if you cross them you see a human made utopia where education, happiness, and the well being of the students seemed to be of equal importance. For my images I walk on the footprints of the girls through the corridors to the classes, the rooms, observing little personal belongings, books, toys. I stare through half open windows to see their lives, I read long lists of names enclosing the memory of the school. Curator: Panagiotis Papoutsis...more

Rea Papadopoulou is Greek, architect and photographer, born in Istanbul, lives and works in Athens. She studied Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is working on long-term photographic projects examining mainly environmental, social and urban issues. Her photography works have been selected and presented in Greek and International Festivals. She has also participated in several solo and group exhibitions, while her works have been included in print and digital editions. Exhibitions 2018 “The Lake You Don’t See” is selected for the Photo Europe Network (PHEN) and exhibited at Photometria Festival Ioannina Greece 2017 “Dark Tree” is selected for the Discovery Awards 2017 and exhibited at the Encontros da Imagem Festival Braga Portugal 2017 “Dark Tree” at DL Gallery, Pireaus, at the group show “Local Stories” 2015 “The Girls Are Sleeping Upstairs” at Athens House of Photography - solo show 2015 “Halki”, Athinais Athens, at the group show “6 Photographers – 6 countries” [Biography updated on: 8/10/2018]