Alexandros Vrettakos is a Greek photographer based in Kozani, Greece. His work moves between poetic realism and existential visual narrative, focusing on the human condition, landscape, and the subtle psychological transformations of everyday life. Through a restrained yet deeply evocative visual language, he constructs images that oscillate between documentary observation and inner metaphysical space.
He has presented more than twenty solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad, and has participated in major photography institutions and festivals, including the Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale (Museum of Photography Thessaloniki). His work has also been exhibited in international photography festivals in Europe, including Poland, Slovakia, and North Macedonia.
Vrettakos has received awards in national and international photography competitions, including first prizes in portrait photography from the Melina Mercouri Foundation and Epson photography competitions, as well as distinctions in thematic and university-level international contests. His work has been shortlisted twice by LensCulture.
Alongside his artistic practice, he maintains a long-standing teaching career in photography. He has taught analog and digital photography since the 1990s in educational institutions and workshops, and in 2003 founded the photography workshop “Fotodiodos” in collaboration with the Municipality of Kozani, where he has taught for more than two decades.
Photography, for me, is not a process of documentation but a slow excavation of what lies beneath the visible world.
I am interested in the fragile threshold where reality begins to dissolve into something more internal, where the human presence, the landscape, and memory intersect without certainty. My images often emerge from ordinary situations, yet I seek within them a subtle displacement: a quiet shift that reveals something unresolved, existential, or poetic.
I understand photography as a form of silent narrative. Not a story that explains, but one that suggests. A space where meaning is never fixed, but continuously negotiated between what is seen and what is felt.
In this sense, my work does not aim to define reality, but to question its stability.
Solo Exhibitions (Selected)
Group Exhibitions / Institutional Participation
He has presented more than twenty solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad, and has participated in major photography institutions and festivals, including the Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale (Museum of Photography Thessaloniki). His work has also been exhibited in international photography festivals in Europe, including Poland, Slovakia, and North Macedonia.
Vrettakos has received awards in national and international photography competitions, including first prizes in portrait photography from the Melina Mercouri Foundation and Epson photography competitions, as well as distinctions in thematic and university-level international contests. His work has been shortlisted twice by LensCulture.
Alongside his artistic practice, he maintains a long-standing teaching career in photography. He has taught analog and digital photography since the 1990s in educational institutions and workshops, and in 2003 founded the photography workshop “Fotodiodos” in collaboration with the Municipality of Kozani, where he has taught for more than two decades.
Photography, for me, is not a process of documentation but a slow excavation of what lies beneath the visible world.
I am interested in the fragile threshold where reality begins to dissolve into something more internal, where the human presence, the landscape, and memory intersect without certainty. My images often emerge from ordinary situations, yet I seek within them a subtle displacement: a quiet shift that reveals something unresolved, existential, or poetic.
I understand photography as a form of silent narrative. Not a story that explains, but one that suggests. A space where meaning is never fixed, but continuously negotiated between what is seen and what is felt.
In this sense, my work does not aim to define reality, but to question its stability.
Solo Exhibitions (Selected)
- 2003 — International Photography Festival, Lodge, Poland
- 2005 — Behind the Mask, Municipality of Kozani, Greece
- 2010 — A Dawn in the West, Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale, Museum of Photography Thessaloniki
- 2011 — The Present for Rent, Municipality of Kozani, Greece
- 2011 — Myths, Contrast Photography Festival, Thessaloniki (National Bank Cultural Foundation)
- 2014 — Logos, Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale, Museum of Photography Thessaloniki
- 2019 — The Greek Crisis, SUMIAC Photography Festival, Slovakia
- 2023 — Fairytales and Nightmares from Vevcani, Vevčani & Skopje, North Macedonia
Group Exhibitions / Institutional Participation
- 2008 — Time, Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale, Museum of Photography Thessaloniki
- 2020 — Anthropause, MOMus Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki
Ο Αλέξανδρος Βρεττάκος είναι Έλληνας φωτογράφος με έδρα την Κοζάνη. Το έργο του κινείται ανάμεσα στον ποιητικό ρεαλισμό και την υπαρξιακή οπτική αφήγηση, εστιάζοντας στην ανθρώπινη κατάσταση, το τοπίο και τις ανεπαίσθητες ψυχολογικές μεταμορφώσεις της καθημερινότητας. Μέσα από μια λιτή αλλά ιδιαίτερα υποβλητική εικαστική γλώσσα, δημιουργεί εικόνες που ισορροπούν ανάμεσα στη ντοκουμενταρίστικη παρατήρηση και σε έναν εσωτερικό, σχεδόν μεταφυσικό χώρο.
Έχει παρουσιάσει περισσότερες από είκοσι ατομικές εκθέσεις στην Ελλάδα και στο εξωτερικό και έχει συμμετάσχει σε σημαντικούς φωτογραφικούς θεσμούς και φεστιβάλ, μεταξύ των οποίων η Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale στο Μουσείο Φωτογραφίας Θεσσαλονίκης. Έργα του έχουν επίσης παρουσιαστεί σε διεθνή φεστιβάλ φωτογραφίας στην Πολωνία, τη Σλοβακία και τη Βόρεια Μακεδονία.
Έχει διακριθεί σε εθνικούς και διεθνείς φωτογραφικούς διαγωνισμούς, αποσπώντας πρώτα βραβεία φωτογραφίας πορτρέτου από το Ίδρυμα Μελίνα Μερκούρη και τους διαγωνισμούς της Epson, καθώς και σημαντικές διακρίσεις σε θεματικούς και πανεπιστημιακούς διεθνείς διαγωνισμούς. Το έργο του έχει συμπεριληφθεί δύο φορές στη βραχεία λίστα (shortlist) των LensCulture Photography Awards.
Παράλληλα με την καλλιτεχνική του δημιουργία, διατηρεί μακρόχρονη διδακτική παρουσία στον χώρο της φωτογραφίας. Διδάσκει αναλογική και ψηφιακή φωτογραφία από τη δεκαετία του 1990 σε εκπαιδευτικά ιδρύματα και εργαστήρια, ενώ το 2003 ίδρυσε, σε συνεργασία με τον Δήμο Κοζάνης, το φωτογραφικό εργαστήριο «Φωτοδίοδος», στο οποίο διδάσκει επί περισσότερα από είκοσι χρόνια.
Επιλεγμένες ατομικές εκθέσεις
- 2003 — Διεθνές Φεστιβάλ Φωτογραφίας, Łódź, Πολωνία
- 2005 — Πίσω από τη Μάσκα, Δήμος Κοζάνης
- 2010 — Ένα Ξημέρωμα στη Δύση, Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale, Μουσείο Φωτογραφίας Θεσσαλονίκης
- 2011 — Το Παρόν Ενοικιάζεται, Δήμος Κοζάνης
- 2011 — Μύθοι, Contrast Photography Festival, Θεσσαλονίκη
- 2014 — Λόγος, Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale, Μουσείο Φωτογραφίας Θεσσαλονίκης
- 2019 — Η Ελληνική Κρίση, SUMIAC Photography Festival, Σλοβακία
- 2023 — Παραμύθια και Εφιάλτες από το Βεβτσάνι, Βεβτσάνι και Σκόπια, Βόρεια Μακεδονία
- 2026— «Πριν την Μεγάλη Θλίψη» στην Δημοτική Βιβλιοθήκη Κοζάνης
Επιλεγμένες ομαδικές εκθέσεις
- 2008 — Χρόνος, Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale, Μουσείο Φωτογραφίας Θεσσαλονίκης
- 2020 — Anthropause, MOMus – Μουσείο Φωτογραφίας Θεσσαλονίκης
