“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 was a great experience for me and I indeed agree that it brought together people who otherwise probably would have never met. And for me, that is what life is all about! (…) The number of people participating in the workshop was perfect. I think the small group is essential to having the opportunity to sit together and give enough time to each person to evaluate and discuss his or her photos. I liked the right mix of freedom and direction. (…) I really feel that I got to know the many faces of the city with its many diverse photographic opportunities. I think presenting other photographers’ work and meeting local photographers contributed to the quality of the workshop. Your honesty and way of critique was constructive and helpful. I feel that I walked away from the workshop with specific ‘phrases’ that I will think about in the future when photographing. (…) Overall, while it might be quite obvious, I learned that photography is very hard work and that you have to take many pictures to have only a few good ones. In the past, I think that taking lots of crappy pictures often discouraged me to go on. This workshop taught me what to look for and what elements in a shot make a good photograph. I also think that I became more comfortable to connect to people through photography. Before this workshop I sometimes felt that I was in a way ‘stealing’ pictures, but when you share a cup of tea with some fishermen and they let you photograph them it feels that our paths have crossed and both sides gave something to the moment/experience. I was inspired to learn more about photography and then focus on a specific project where I can photograph with a specific aim.

I have been an avid photographer for the past few years and moved to Greece from New York only a few months ago. Greece is my homeland but has experienced many changes during my 9 years of absence and I am eager to use my camera to tell the present story. Attending the workshop was a no brainer, being on the spot and needing a serious incentive to get me on the streets of Athens. What I got in return was much more than I had bargained for!!! I met Nikos and discovered a person who went far beyond small technical issues, discussing what photography is really all about and using his own experiences as examples. The topics were endless and his willingness to answer every question and clarify every blurry notion was remarkable. I was very impressed with his openness and how friendly and giving he was. Sharing our knowledge and our experiences is most important and it is what helps us and those around us grow. And Nikos certainly does that. Furthermore, I was very happy that Nikos encouraged participants to go off on their own to shoot. We need to www.ontheroad.grelop our own vision and make our own mistakes. In short, thank you Niko for an amazing week and I look forward to future workshops and more guidance from you!

As always, a great workshop, good people and rewarding discussions. First, I will say I really enjoyed Porto as a city. Its’ size was just right, and there were enough interesting areas to get around to – the old town, art museum, food market, the other side of the river and town Gaia, the beaches and the riverside walks. And it was easy to get around with buses and trams – and walking.
Second, I really enjoy to experience and to watch how good you are pedagogically. One little step at a time, go easy, you manage to lift us all a little bit – also the not so experienced. Thank you so much for that!
You do it so well, and discreetly – I think we hardly notice that we learn something, a little at a time. And also always interesting to listen when you tell of your experiences, travels, of the history of photography and the great photographers in the past.
I come home happy, having learned a lot. Now looking at my photos with more critical eyes, knowing maybe how to do it better next time.

I feel really blessed to be part of the community of “ontheroad”. Nikos is an extraordinary mentor for everyone no matter which level one is working on. And, besides the joy of the journey it’s the great company of all the warm people you meet in this workshop. The things we have learned from Nikos are starting to work in my mind and i hope to begin seeing not just recording something. I really enjoyed it a lot. I really look forward to the next workshop.

The workshop with Nikos was a great experience and a wonderful event. The evening reviews were inspiring as Nikos proved to be not only a gifted photographer but also a patient teacher and reviewer. He truly possesses the didactical skills to explain what elements are required in building up a good photograph. Naturally the workshop was frustrating at the same time as one comes to realize what skills are required in order to perform photography at this level. Nonetheless, it is definitely learning process that I want to experience again, so I’m studying my agenda and Nikos’ website to try to decide when I can sign up again.

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..

The workshop in Ghana was my first with Nikos. It was a great experience because Nikos is not only an excellent photographer and teacher, but also a really wonderful person to be with! In Nikos’ teaching methods I loved especially that he let everybody go his own way and let us www.ontheroad.grelop our own visions. He was not imposing his own style or anything else, so each participant was free to photograph whatever he or she wanted to. In the evenings we all met for long and very interesting editing sessions. Then Nikos went carefully through all the photographs we offered him, regardless if there were only a few or even a hundred. He gave each of us excellent feedback on our daily work in a direct and honest, but always very friendly way. With this we learnt how to avoid common traps or clichés, how to recognise easy tricks, and avoid making boring and badly composed pictures. So he carefully guided each of us and helped us day by day to improve our work. Thanks a lot for all this Nikos, you are a great inspiration and I already look forward to being with you again in another workshop! Thanks also to all the participants for the great time we had together!

Ethiopia was my 4th workshop and i feel like it is already more than a workshop but seeing a good friend, travelling around and having good time. It’s more like learning more about life not only photography. So if anybody still have doubts about attending one, go, be yourself and let Maestro show you what you actually are.

This week was, by far, my best spent time concerning photography over these last few years.
I was trying to clear my mind, to find the right approach to photography, and this workshop was a stepping stone, taking me to another level of understanding.
Staying late each night, patiently going through other participants’ work, as well as my own, answering our questions, explaining choices we did not understand in the beginning, helping us to see the good and the bad elements in a photo, pointing out good content and good intention.
All these things and more, Nikos did in a very honest way, sharing his thoughts and his knowledge with each of us. A great photographer, and a really inspiring mentor.

 I would like to say how very much I valued Nikos’ perceptive, insightful and supportive comments. While just starting out in photography the workshop was a really valuable guide on how I should be thinking about it. I really liked the emphasis on looking for the humanity in the image, the unusual, the abnormal, the avoidance of the simply descriptive, the banal, the obvious and cliché. Not to mention the need to be very selective, paying attention to backgrounds, the value of geometry in composition, finding interesting elements and locations, the need to concentrate on simple forms and shapes and avoid clutter. The workshop was a genuinely supportive and helpful experience.
So thank you Nikos for lots of really helpful advice and I hope to see you on future workshops.

The best aspect of Nikos workshop for me was to realize that a good photo can be best produce by liberating oneself from codes and rules. Seeing everyday each participant become visually freer and freer was revealing. Nikos has a passion for images and this workshop was all about sharing with us this passion. We were all motivated and thrilled by everybody’s images, comments and discussion about what makes an image better than others. Nikos gave us freedom, feedback and love for photography beyond imagination. Thank you. It was truly a unique experience.

This is my third workshop with Nikos. It has been very helpfull to me in order to discover what kind of photography I want to do in the near future and to begin to www.ontheroad.grelop my own style. I think Turkey is a great place to take pictures and I have the intention to go back several times and make a solid photographic portfolio of the country. The atmosphere, participants, place…all have been great.

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..

(…) 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!

Most of all I would like to thank you for inspiring me. I’m still in a learning process in photojournalism, but I felt I needed to know more about photography before moving on. I really enjoyed turning things around. Working with single visual impacts, instead of storytelling photojournalism, took me back to the roots of photography. I’ve learned a lot by doing so. In a way I tried to copy you and those that inspire you, Cartier-Bresson etc, and where that in a way sounds like a bad approach (instead of finding my own style), it made me look at pictures in a new way. In photojournalism I’m supposed to tell a story that has to be told directly. Where the message of the picture is delivered instantly. On this trip I learned how to make pictures that make the viewer look an extra time. Where there is no instant message, but where the pictures create curiosity. It is another way in photography. And a style I will try to combine with photojournalism.

I have previously attended a photography workshop with Nikos Economopoulos (Karpathos-Greece, Easter 2008) and it was the most beautiful ten consecutive days of my life. I asked to participate at the Varanasi workshop because I admire Nikos as a photographer and completely trust him as a person. I regretted it immediately after I signed up, because my fear of the unknown took over and I was about to call and cancel, despite all the shame that I would feel. Fortunately I did not do it. I got a whole lot out of this workshop. The daytime was dedicated to shooting, and during the evenings we were showing our day’s work. Niko’s observations and criticism were made in such a way that made us feel pushed forward, he has a way of encouraging you and making you put yourself in every image you make and feel confident about it. We never felt put down by a comment or a remark. There was an atmosphere of affection and solidarity all the way through. (He even helped me with my laptop..) Varanasi is magical..

People ask me why I keep attending Nikos’ workshops. Well, I can’t imagine a better way to experience and photograph a new place than through Nikos’ workshop! The regimen and discipline it requires is just impossible to duplicate if you’re otherwise simply traveling on holiday. What’s even better is that you get daily feedback and instruction. We see ourselves improve, whatever skill level we’re at. Our understanding of photography and our own approach thereto is deepened with each session, in every workshop attended. This is probably why this tribe of On The Road travellers has continued to grow into a thriving community of like-minded people. Even after the workshop, we have continued to keep in touch and remain friends, providing each other with insight and feedback on photography. This is why I like being On The Road with Nikos.

The Varanasi workshop was clearly the highlight of my India visit. Nikos’ advice after our first editing sessions that I should use only my 50mm lens and shoot only black and white was very valuable. After that I felt more relaxed and focused and could produce more consistent and better images. After coming home I have re-examined the Varanasi photos and I must say that I am pleased with the results. I would also like to thank for the great company during the workshop. During the daytime each student could work individually with her/his own problems. In the evenings we gathered together to discuss the results. This scheme worked out very well: you could see how the students progressed during the week. I felt that Nikos’ comments, even the critical ones, were to the point and always supportive. A specially memorable evening was when Nicos showed and discussed some of his own iconic images. I felt privileged to see and hear his thoughts on style, photography, art and life in general.

I sometimes felt like a first year violin player in a master class. I do not mind feeling a bit stupid at times and think I profit a lot by learning of the best. I have learned a lot and will continue to do so for quite some time. And hopefully, I will be able to join other workshops (…) I liked the approach very much – giving advice on the one hand and letting the participants find their own way on the other. And then, of course, the voyage was marvellous, extraordinary in the purest sense of the word.