Athens Photo World 2026: Mitos, the thread of Greece

Mitos – The Thread of Greece is a long-term photographic project that explores female identity as a bearer of memory, roles and ritual in contemporary Greece. Initiated in 2019, it is based on staged portraits of women and girls situated between the private and public spheres—the home, the landscape and the community. Traditional costumes are approached not as folklore or museum artefacts, but as active symbols that carry weight, protection and continuity. Worn by bodies that belong to the present, they reveal how tradition survives not as a static past, but as a living process. Mitos examines the silent transmission of tradition from one generation to the next through the body, the gaze and everyday gesture. The “thread” functions as a metaphor for the connection between women and their history, linking personal experience with collective memory and keeping these identities present in a world that is constantly transforming.

Michail Pappas is a Greek photographer based in Northern Euboea whose work explores contemporary interpretations of Greek tradition and cultural memory.