ATHENS - BLEEDING THOSE RIOT PHOTOS TO DEATH

As you may recall, just before the new year we posted photos of and interviews with some of those rambunctious Greek rioters who've been ripping apart Athens since that 15-year-old was shot by the cops. The "resistance" has been waxing and waning since then, and some pretty destructive activities have been taking place on a weekly (if not daily) basis. Unbeknownst to us, the photos we posted right here on our li'l ol' blog quickly hit critical mass and became sort of like emblems for youth angst and rebellion. One of the photographers recently told us that 12-year-olds are dressing like the kids in the photos as if they were celebrities. Some have even screen-printed t-shirts with the very shots he gave us. On top of all this, the Greek media snatched up our exclusive faster than you can say αναρχία (that's anarchy, dummy). Even some of the country's biggest mainstream media outlets had the gall to broadcast them as their own with nary a mention of our esteemed publication. Once word got out about who took the photos, Freddie was (and still is) receiving upwards of ten interview requests per day. He only granted one with a free weekly called Lifo, which is like the Village Voice of Athens. Of course, the goddamn thing was in Greek so we only recently got around to translating it. Keep reading to get a better idea of how important these photos are to the greasy whippersnappers of the Hellenic Republic.

FROM INSIDE

They are the most talked about photographs of recent days. The riveting reporting of two Greek photographers Freddie F. and Stathis Mamalakis from inside the Polytechneio sit-in made it around the world before it even got published in Vice [Perhaps the Greeks don't consider the internet to be a publishing medium, or maybe this is just a mistake, but we had 'em first. Freddie even says so down below—ed.]. This is the story of a photo shoot…

"We believe in the power of an image," say Freddie F. and Stathis Mamalakis, commenting on their photos of rioting youth of the Polytechneio that have circled the globe.

"When you see a car burning on Panepistimiou [Avenue], chaos where you normally pass everyday, there's hope, a message that something might change. That something needs to change. That's the message our photos are sending. That something must happen." Freddie and Stathis were the only photographers that made it into the Polytechneio during the riots to report for Vice.

"I bought newspapers daily, I watched the news and I was reading nothing about what I was interested in," says Freddie. "I was hearing stories that didn't cover either side of the issue. We heard so many fabricated tales. You can't report from inside a studio. We're not pretending to be documentary photographers, we simply went to the Polytechneio to talk to some people because we were personally interested and because an international magazine like Vice was interested covering the story. We went there relatively unprepared; we didn't expect what we encountered. We were outside of the Polytechneio, as anyone could be if they so chose and we spoke to the kids. We told them what we wanted, what the magazine is, what it was interested in, when the tear gas dropped. I lost my bearings and because I am asthmatic, tear gas can be life-threatening. The kids carried me inside. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe. The moment they were bringing me inside, one of the protestors removed his mask and placed it on my face. A young couple administered first aid with Maalox. When they saw that I had a serious problem, they took me into a classroom with less smoke and gas. That's where we started talking to people—there were 2,000 people there that night. I saw familiar faces that I know from going out. I don't know their names or where they live, but they're not anarchists for sure. I saw people congregating there because there was something bothering them.

"We got the sense that it was an organized body, everyone had a role." says Stathis. "The girls that were administering first aid, those that cared for the fire for heating purposes and to clear the air of tear gas. Others guarded the gate. It didn't feel like anarchy or chaos. All I know is that the kids protected us."

"I don't think the photos show anything illegal that would allow the authorities to override the asylum," says Freddie. "The universities are usually in that sorry state anyway. I am against destruction but I don't consider it immoral. The system that sedates everybody, our Ancient Greek ancestry, our education, have all brought us to this point. I think it's exceptionally modern to destroy your past when it doesn't offer you anything anymore. These kids have nothing to gain from the current system. And they weren't rich kids or lost kids, as was written in the press. They were desperate kids. We saw people aged 12 to 37, there was a large age differential in the people that we interviewed. We saw parents with their children applying ointment to the eyes of nine year olds to protect them from the tear gas."

"What's the message that these photos convey? I can't really say. We documented what we saw with the utmost respect. We spoke to everyone we photographed. We photographed only those who agreed to be photographed. The interviews were random and we didn't change a single word. I wasn't approaching the issue from a specific political stance. I returned to Greece after 12 years and I found that everything was shit…. There is no education, there is no social security, the system itself is in a state of anarchy. How is it possible that there is nothing you can expect from your own government?"

"In the beginning the kids thought we took advantage of them. The photos were published Wednesday and by Friday, they were all over the TV stations without mention of where they came from and who took them. In an orgy of breach of intellectual property, Greek media used the photos and put us in a very difficult position because everyone thought we gave them the photos. The worst were those individuals who used them as proof against the kids to show the damages inside the university. As photographers, photographs are the only way we know to create change. Our artistic expression is our contribution. What did we get from all of this? Moral satisfaction and the support of foreign media. Ironically, if Vice hadn't published these photos, the Greek media may have never even paid attention. Money? Not a Euro. We were offered some money, but we didn't accept it."