I would like to express my gratitude to Nikos for being not only an attentive and demanding photography mentor, but also for being a humble, caring and infinitely friendly person. It was always a pleasure for us to share with him not only ideas about photography, but also numerous stories about his life and adventures. I feel that in that week my photographic skills moved to a completely new level. The first few days have been a bit of a strugle as I tried to implement Nikos’ technical suggestions and made sure I really followed his advice, but at the end the magic happened and I felt like my vision had changed once and forever.

This is my fifth workshop with Nikos. It has became kind of an annual meeting with him. Every year I discover something new. In Lisbon workshop, different photographic issues have arised about the event and the anti-event, go beyond description or what happen or not in the picture. I have learned to find a balance between all these photographic topics or, at least, I have begun to look for them in my pictures.

Ethiopia’s workshop has been a wonderful experience for my photography.
Nikos guides you on a very precise path: one camera, one lens, one format between black and white and color, and focus on the image. Just relax, react to what you see, without too much thought or preparation.
This may sound obvious, but it was not for me at the beginning: I’ve passed from confusion, feelings of inadequacy, to be more and more confident and able to enjoy the process, and it’s been amazing for me to see my pictures improve day by day, become more interesting and less ordinary.
Niko’s passion is contagious, he’s able to criticize very precisely and firmly but always in a positive and constructive way.
I still have l a long way to go, but I can only thank Nikos for giving me back enthusiasm and directions to improve my photography.
I really look forward for the next workshop with Nikos!

The workshop in Istanbul with Nikos has been very challenging and enriching experience as I am quite new at photography. When we have to leave our comfort-zone, to see different around us, we struggle to improve and it is never easy. The precious advice of such talented and experienced photographer as Nikos opens up new horizons to work on and sharing comments and time with other partecipants turned out to be very productive and pleasant. I have appreciated so much the method, editing is crucial for any photographer and Nikos helped us understand how to proceed or try it better. I love your attitude and personal approach Nikos, so true … if we’ll be a better a person, we’ll be a better photographer.

My name is Seungwoo Chae. I’m working as a photographer for a newspaper in Korea. I was feeling that something was missing in my photography. I wanted to know what I needed. Consequently, it was great idea to participate to Nikos’ workshop. He told me and showed me what was ‘photographic’. I felt to return to beginning. I think I could start again.

Nikos teaches the real thing – learning to shoot excellent photos that capture the eye and interest. Stopping fashionable habits like” storytelling”, “streetphotography” – avoiding clichés, mannerism and boredom instead pure clarity and mastership in creating compelling visuals. A group of excellent photographers with very special talents meets – surprising in expertise and dedication.
Nikos himself – an open-minded and well-balanced teacher: straightforward, clear and offering individual ways of learning to everyone.
You will shoot on your own during the day those topics that give you most pleasure. In the long evenings there is a very intense time for moving forward by editing the shots taken and studying examples from the history of photography: you start to see like your camera does and to discover the beauty of the unknown. 
Nikos acts with attentive care for the thoughts and ideas of the participants, offering a new step every day on how to continue. Efcharisto poli.

“This is my third workshop with Nikos and even though I should know what to expect, it was still such an intense journey from agony, elation through awakening, without any bullshit. It was like a much needed spiritual cleansing to expel the bad habits for a simple goal to make a better photograph that’s visually valid. Nikos, thank you for pushing me further – I know my next workshops with you will be just as rewarding.”

For me as a professional photojournalist, to be with Nikos takes me back to photography where surprise and curiosity are key elements, instead of telling the story as specific as possible – as many editors seek today. Working in a fast moving newsflow, photojournalism needs surprise to stop readers, and Niko’s photography does exactly that. It intrigues us and plays with our imagination. It moves us from the world of realism to the world of surrealism.
And a workshop with Nikos is a vital reminder of photography at its best: to show us the world in a way we don’t see it ourselves. And to be formulated by a teacher, not only extremely talented, but also a friendly and charismatic travel companion.
I’m already looking forward to my next workshop with Nikos Economopoulos.

I met Nikos last April in Iran’s workshop for the first time.We traveled for ten days and that trip changed my perception of photography. He taught me how to go beyond the limits and break strict rules and let creativity inspire me to create my own photography style. After 7 months,I decided to participate in another workshop and Varanasi was a great choice for me. The city was the most amazing place I’ve ever visited and if it wasn’t for the workshop, I might have never gone there. We had enough time during the day to see the city and the special ceremony which was held in that time. And in the evenings,reviewing participant’s photos encouraged me to explore the city more in the next day.

There is a british saying – “those who can, do and those who can’t, teach” – and indeed, judging from my profession the best surgeons are usually unable to transmit their knowledge insofar as their talent and ingenuity is what drives them, and this cannot be easily transferred. So, I I did not know what to expect from a Magnum workshop.. I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised ! Nikos kept proving , again and again, how someone who is a (generally accepted) master in his work and has acquired a place as one of the main photographers of the 20th century, can also be a simple and down to earth person: His immense patience kept surprising me, day after day: When I thought that he would have had enough going through another bunch of amateur’s photos, he manifested kindness coupled with insight while critiquing our photos. He constantly managed to stay acutely interested, after hours of looking into photos, to adjust his level of critique to different photographer levels, without appearing either patronising or bored. Every photo would appear to be an opportunity to delve deep into the nature of photography this is not a course about flashes and lenses and f-stops indeed, it presupposes you have reached an appropriate technical level, going beyond that, trying to understand the nature of photography, why some photos move us and confuse and grasp us in such a way an academic level teaching from someone who at the same time is a real photographer. Someone who can gravitate at the same time between being the artist and the critic, the producer of art and the academic (a combination that would be normally unthinkable!). The course is not for the faint hearted it is intensive and demanding , not because of Nikos’ demands or attitude (on the contrary , he is relaxed as can be) but because you will be surrounded by talented, motivated photographers , everyone of which will be doing his/her best. This is not a course on sunsets and cute babies – but you will hear intelligent and thought provoking quotes on photography, that most people would have to spend years reading to finding from the non-descriptive power of photography to the importance of light and to the language and balance of images.. One could keep on talking about the course what was most interesting was that half of the participants Addis course have followed his previous workshops. Probably this is the greatest compliment to the workshop. I am looking forward to my next session with Nikos..

This is the third time I participate in a Nikos’s workshop. Everybody comes back! Cuba was amazing. The people, the place, the backgrounds, the light, everything was perfect and of course Nikos’s passion for photography, his sharp vision, his keenness to find great images in our work made us produce and achieve great results. His comments are always truly useful and make us see in a different way. This is not a didactic class, this is an awareness journey, this is a personal search of style and meaning for our images. He does not tell us what to do. We ultimately discover it by ourselves and this is truly amazing. It looks like an impossible task but after a few days every body’s work becomes stronger, more compact and meaningful. Nikos is friendly and affectionate to everybody, he tries to understand the needs of every participant. He is generous with his time and he is always ready to help during the day. If he feels somebody needs extra help he immediately proposes a private meeting in the morning. The evening meetings are a delight. To see so many good images, talented photographers trying to improve their work is incredible motivating. I am planning to come to Iran in May and looking forward to it. Thank you Nikos for organizing the workshops and for your enthusiasm in our work. We do appreciate it, hugely.

I have as complicated a relationship with street photography as I do with my streets. I am passionate about other people’s street photography but find it very hard to do it myself. I don’t want to poke my camera into the face of someone having a bad day, but I do want to show my family and friends the intensity of life here, and why I often have my heart broken during a short trip for groceries. Recently some of my Istanbul photography friends did a workshop (or two!) with legendary Magnum photographer Nikos Economopoulos, and I was really interested in the work they produced. When we heard he was coming to Istanbul Ville persuaded me that I should sign up.
For three days I spent a few hours shooting alone and then met up with Nikos and the other participants to go through all the pictures. This took four or five hours each day. I learnt so much by listening to Nikos critique us all. He is truly a person with great generosity and a big, open heart (as well as being an incredible photographer). He removed the terror of showing my attempts (however unsuccessful) and helped me find a new way of thinking about photographing on the street.

Attending a workshop with Nikos as your teacher, critic and guide into the world of creating the best images that you can produce, is both a challenging and inspiring experience. This was my second workshop with Nikos, and it was incredible!! How he teaches you to look at a photograph and “not just see it” makes me compose each individual frame with an more critical eye and deeper understanding on how to make a photograph come alive. With his encouragement and strong commitment to getting the best from me, he guided me in the direction that I wanted to grow. Ultimately the week with Nikos was a very rewarding experience! On another note just spending time with him, over dinner or lunch, listening to his stories, is great. Traveling around parts of Istanbul with him on tram’s, trains and taxi’s looking for stadiums, they are all great memories that will be with me for a longtime.

Every literate can write. Not every literate can write poems or short stories. Even less of them can write meaningful or original stories. I think the same thing applies to photographers. Every person with a camera can take photos. Some can produce stories, but just a few are able to produce a meaningful and personal work.
Sometimes I joke and say that Nikos’ mission on Earth is to educate us, his participants, to become original, faithful and personal photographers. After a while, I am coming to believe that my joke was actually real. The transformation he manages from us is unreal. The photos that he choses are a caress to the eyes and soul. And this leads me to a second conclusion: Nikos is the best editor I have ever met.
Gracias, Maestro!

The more workshops I do with Nikos the more I want to come back. Every place is different as the challenges to encounter. The good thing about coming back, is that he already knows how much we can achieve so he pressures us accordingly, and I think we most agree that our results get a bit better every time.
Like each new workshop is like starting from scratch, each day of it is also starting from scratch. In every meeting he would choose a few photos but the next morning we start again from blank. The days are long and intense, but for me it’s just pure joy. We have some good days but others we hit the wall. It’s inexplicable the pleasure we have when we manage to go over that wall. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. But as Nikos well said: “We can have good days and bad days. But that is not important. What really matters is that we never lose the great feeling of wanting to go out and take photos. That, it is very important.” And I do hope, to never lose that feeling.
Niko, thank you again, and I am already looking forward to Argentina next month.

(…) During this workshop, (the) edition pointed clearly that the kind of connection I establish with people and the environment while photographing them reflects on the kind of photography i make. Thus through photography I got an interesting connection with istanbullus, with the city and with myself. In that intense week I went hardly into the search for the purest photographic substance in Istanbul, photographing street scenes the whole days in different neighborhoods with a fixed 35mm in hands and no specific subject or assignment, but the mission to get very few shots, among hundreds, of these very dynamic moments in which things get right in the frame at the right time. At the end of the days, I think the editions had very high standards and at the same time were didatic, with helpful comments and good discussing with the participants – a very stimulating group, with people I really enjoyed meeting. After the workshop, I’m satisfied with the portfolio I made. And feel inspired to keep producing my personal work. Besides, with your edition and coordination the photography workshop potencialized the warm experience I had at my first time in Istanbul. (…) They’ve been very helpful and showed me a different path to follow in my photographic work.

Doctors, teachers, students, architects, among others, left their comfort zone and their countries to meet other photographers to go to an unknown part of the world. 12 hours a day taking photos, then editing them to get to enjoy the cherry to the cake, meeting Nikos every evening to share all the results of each productive day. A whole week of pure pleasure to those passionate about photography. The guidance received by Nikos after first seeing our portfolio made us be prepared for the days to come. The feedback received every night not only by him but also by the other photographers, helped us continue to improve our way of photographing. Exchanging views with the others was a very enriching experience, both personal and professionally. Nikos’ sensibility and the encouragement he gave us made us realize that he is not only a great photographer but also a humble and considerate friend. I highly recommend this workshop to those lovers of photography and to those seeking to move on or searching for new ways. I am looking forward to joining more workshops with Nikos in the near future.