bio

Demetris Koilalous was born in Athens. He studied Town and Country Planning in Edinburgh and Geography in London. Since 1990, he has been working as a professional in portrait, theatre, and commercial photography. His studies contributed to an understanding of space as a socioeconomic framework, while his engagement with the allegorical world of theatre and the symbolic language of advertising shaped the way he constructs images and seeks meaning beyond the obvious and placing emphasis on gesture, silence and spatial relationships. 

His photographic practice focuses on issues of identity and belonging, and the ways this is inscribed within space. Moving between landscape and portraiture he operates across both landscape and portraiture, he examines how broader social and historical conditions shape individual experience and personal narratives.

His work has been exhibited in festivals, museums, and galleries in Greece, France, Ireland, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Wales, Georgia, Portugal, and Lithuania. He has received awards and distinctions including Head On Photo Festival (Sydney), CENTER Santa Fe, YICCA International Awards (Italy), Kuala Lumpur International Photo Awards, and the Buschlen Mowatt Nichol Foundation Grand Prize (Canada). His photographs are held in public and private collections such as the Arab Image Foundation, Head On Photo Festival, CENTER Santa Fe, and the Museum of Photography Thessaloniki.

His first book, CAESURA; the duration of a sigh (KEHRER Verlag, 2018), received significant distinctions. His most recent book, Athens 42 Days (KEHRER Verlag, 2025), also widely awarded, is a systematic documentation of Athens during the 42 days of the COVID-19 lockdown, functioning as a fragment of collective memory that captures the anxiety, fear, and melancholic solitude of a contemporary metropolis.