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Beyond the Walls: Psychiatric Hospital
Collaborations and Censorship
In collaboration with the Panhellenic Association for Psychiatric Reform and psychiatrist Theodoros Megalooikonomou, the photographs were shown in a series of exhibitions, bringing attention to the lives and experiences of institutionalized patients.
A photo book titled “The Journey and Zoë” was created in connection with the Tripoli Psychiatric Hospital. Sadly, it was censored by the Ministry of Health and never released, leaving the story of Zoë and others largely unseen by the wider public.
Location
Makri by Tripoli, Greece
Date
2002-2004
Makris Sanatorium
Originally built in 1947 as a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Makris building, located 7 km outside Tripolis, has served as a psychiatric hospital since 1967, its walls bearing decades of history and human stories.
I first visited the spaces of a psychiatric hospital in 2002, driven by a desire to understand the other side of the wall that separates my world from that of institutionalized mental patients. During my work, I was deeply overwhelmed by the harsh and inhumane living conditions endured by long-term psychiatric patients. My photographic exploration took on a more personal dimension when I met Zoë, a 61-year-old woman at the time, who had spent more than half her life in the psychiatric hospital. I visited her many times and followed her during her first steps outside the institution in 2004.
Looking at these photographs today, and knowing that little has changed, I find myself wondering when Greece will develop a modern care system that will prevent me from ever having the opportunity to take similar images again.
