I recently returned from Nikos “Balkan Expedition”, although I have been back for three months, I don’t feel like I am anywhere near to returning to “normal life”. My experience during Nikos workshop was spectacular. Visited locations I would never have travelled to and energized to photograph there. I learned so much and experienced so much that I am sure it will take quite a while to fully assimilate. The symposium experience was truly flawless, from discussions and critiques with an honest opinion about your photography. And lets not forget the participants themselves, an amazing diverse and talented group who were a joy to be around and learned much from each other. If you are serious about wanting to become a better street photographer you can not go wrong with Nikos “Balkan Expedition” workshop. For myself, I am already thinking about my next Economopoulos experience.

Most recently, I participated in the Argentina/Uruguay workshop with NIkos. This was my third workshop with him. Each one has been as different as the countries we visit, our photography levels, and the wonderful people who participate in them. What is certain each time, is the positive photographic and personal experience. Nikos doesnt hold your hand, tell you where to go, or how to photograph. He encourages you to find that yourself and you do. You can count on his encouragement and guidance but the search is yours as you will www.ontheroad.grelop your own style and your own way of being a photographer. The daily evening meetings are fantastic, everyone shares their work from that day and the conversation is very enriching. Nikos enthusiasm to see everyones work is wonderful, he is interested and excited about our images as if they were his own. This contagious enthusiasm and his amazing constructive criticism becomes our best tool and guidance for the next day. Nikos workshops are not for the faint of heart, they are a lot of hard work, discovery, physical and emotional effort and incredibly rewarding. I can hardly wait for the next one. I am amazed at my growth as a photographer as a result of Nikos’ workshops, not to mention what a wonderful way this is to see the world and become part of it. Thank you Nikos!

“Just walking, seeing and saying nothing and seeing the result at the end of the day. Giving myself to the road and being on the road. Hearing the honest comments Seeing throw a window that dear Nikos opens to my eyes, and exploring my country Even myself more than it. My second workshop. I wait for the next chance”

To have a workshop in my own country, so dear to me, was a big challenge, yet a wonderful experience…. To have Nikos there… was the cherry to the cake. It was great to see how the other participants, who I knew from other trips, viewed my people, my land. Nikos’ usual coolness, good sense of humour and positive attitude towards everything and everybody is just perfect. The daily meetings keep being the highlight of my trips, the most expected moment, after a long day, rushed editing and great expectations to see nice surprises. Nikos’ vision and contagious emotion towards a beautiful picture is moving… the atmosphere he creates, magical. Counting the days to next one. Gracias, Niko!

To go on a workshop with Nikos is one big learning experience. It means to challenge yourself in ways that at least I don’t do in my everyday life. I really appreciate his strong opinions and straightforwardness. To talk about photography and show your daily work to him is very rewarding because of his profound knowledge and total honesty. I strongly recommend anyone interested in this type of photography to go on a workshop with Nikos. I’m truly grateful for what I have learned from him and of course I will return for another workshop.

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 sounds so cliché (…), but this workshop has changed my life! The 35mm has not left my camera and I am really enjoying composing in a way that is more interesting. (…) A few things that you said about my photography really shocked me but shocked me more to realise that you were right… still amazes me that you have made an observation that was so right from looking at my photos alone. Thanks.. In terms of feedback, I think the workshops in the evening were really enjoyable, especially being to learn from other participants’ work and your comments of them. Your help with interesting things to do prior to the workshop was also very helpful. The only thing that I would ask is for you to be even harder with your critiques and provide perhaps some sort of direction as to where each one of us could go…through each evening discussion as well as at the end of the workshop. I think your guidance to each of us is very valuable and we could do with more of it, well I could at least. (…) Not sure where photography is heading for me, but I have been loving every moment of it so far! I have learnt more in Beirut than I have in the last 2 years!

I came to the workshop feeling dissatisified with what I was doing with my photography and hoped that the workshop would help me find a more definite direction. I was particularly impressed with your ability to look at the work of the members of the workshop group, assess where we were up to photographically and individually give us feedback and suggestions based on this and on the work we did progressively throughout the workshop. The practical information you gave us (eg about ‘visual impact’, about taking care with all elements that fill the frame of a photograph – not just the main subject, etc), I also found useful. As well, I enjoyed the ‘journey’ of the workshop itself – seeing everyone’s work each evening and hearing about our different explorations of Istanbul (particularly those to areas away from the tourist hordes). However, the main overall impact of the workshop for me was that it made me realise and accept that, if I am to continue seriously with my photography, I do need to change my focus. Doing things the same old way is no longer an option. It will take me some time to properly work out what this should be, but the workshop has given me the impetus to make a start, as well as some constructive ideas. I am very grateful for that.

I had the chance to participate in one of Nikos Economopoulos’ photographic journeys-workshops. The unique and very particular way that he has in guiding you without giving you recipes, while respecting your personal worldview, turns the whole photographic experience into a broad aesthetic and intellectual experience, as well as pure joy. Within just a few days, I discovered that the chaotic world around me has balance and poetry.

“Loved loved the workshop. Nikos is a great teacher. The way he offers feedback is fantastic, it helps you grow from day to day and see things in a different way from day to day. Really liked the daily edit session and learned a lot from looking at each other’s work. It was an honor to be part of a group of so talented photographers. Hopefully will be able to join another workshop in the near future.”

(…) 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.

“It’s a unique opportunity to push yourself a step further in photography. Challenge yourself! Leave all you know (or might know) about photography behind you. Face the reviews in the evenings and go out the next morning and try to do better than the day before. Thats what I did and since then I know that good photography is more then just colors, lines, structures and shapes. I look forward going to the next workshop with Nikos and to try to push myself once again a step further.”

I did not know what to expect from a Greek maestro who lives and travels half the year in his cool VW T3. From the first hour of meeting Nikos in Pristina, my perspective on human relations and photography changed. His no-nonsense approach, opinions and advice delivered always with respect, kindness and often times, humour plus his wealth of life and photographic experience taught me to be free, take risks, challenge the norm and focus on making a compelling and difficult photo instead of fiddling with technical issues. What is also priceless, is his personal interest in the places and people we visited. Without his thoughtful commentary on the historical and cultural background to frame the environment we were in and his interesting friends who joined us during the week, it would have been a totally superficial tourist visit to Kosovo. I can’t wait to join him again.

“I haven’t touched the camera for good period of time and right from the first day of the workshop i was back in the game. This group was so rich of characters and bonding in a great way. I personally learned so much in this 11 days and i will never forget the time in Iran with you guys -)”

The workshop of Nikos changed my photographic vision and belief. In something I always though was photography but nobody had told me before. He changed my way of photographing, he make me understand the importance of the frame edges, what to think when you shoot, he brought my photography to a new level, and it took me one year to digest what I’ve learned in those days. Nikos is the old hard core street photographer, and one of the finest in the Magnum group (is not only me to say it, but other Magnum photographers), I say this because what you can learn from this kind of photographers, nobody else is able to teach you. I have learned to compose better, to have more attention to what is in my frame, to slow down and think and shoot, I have learned to edit pictures in a more selective way choosing only the great pictures not the good ones, to be ruthless in editing..

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.

…The workshop in Istanbul has been a great experience for me. Some points I got from it are the following: I trust myself a little bit more and now I think my personal view is as valid as any other to describe a city or a place. I have to work much on this subject: What do objetivity and subjetivity mean in photography? Moreover, Istanbul is a fantastic city to make oneself questions such as: What do contemporaneity mean? I have become more motivated to go through the work of different photographers…

Nikos workshop was by far the event with the most intense and strongest impact on my photographic view. It was an amazing pleasure to see everyone flourishing under Nikos relaxed and still disciplined guidance. Initially you might experience some confusion. You might still carry the diffuse anxious anticipation you built up before the workshop. Or You might feel even jammed seeing your former photographic concepts going to pieces. But then: Boooooom – comes the creative explosion within the steep part of the learning curve. You´ll very soon get more selective, more focused, more careful, more personal and more playful when working with your camera. Powerful stuff, hard work, lovely people and lots of fun. Nikos teaches a wonderfully concentrated no-frills approach to photography. One camera, one fixed focal. It´s all about the picture, the visual event in the frame and within that rigorous selection of what is interesting and what is not.