ABOUT
STEFANOS PAIKOS (b. 1985, Larissa, Greece) is a documentary photographer based in Berlin. He grew up between Greece and Germany — Greek in Germany, German in Greece — never quite claimed by either. That experience, more than any training, shaped the way he works. With a strong background in long-form storytelling, he addresses underreported humanitarian issues shaped by political and ecological crises.
Since 2021, he has been working on Reaching for Dusk, a long-term project on the stage of displacement that rarely reaches the news — the years before the border, spent in camps, in cities of transit, on the edges of routes that Europe has pushed far beyond its own territory. He has photographed in Tunisia, Italy, and Senegal, among other places.
Assignments from the project have been commissioned and published by The Guardian and Die Zeit, with further work appearing in other international publications.
In 2025, he received the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. His work has also been shown at Rotterdam Photo Festival and Encontros da Imagem, and he is a recipient of the Lucie Scholarship Program, among other international festivals and awards.
AWARDS
2025
W. Eugene Smith Grant Finalist Recipient 2025
Rotterdam Photo Festival 2025 - Winner
Rotterdam Photo Festival 2025 - Single Image - Winner
Encontros da Imagem Festival 2025 - Winner
Lucie Scholarship Programm 2025 - Finalist
2024
Encontros da Imagem Festival 2024 - Winner
Glasgow Gallery of Photography - Reportage Exhibition 2024 - Winner
F-Stop Issue - Open Theme - 2024 - Winner
Critical Mass 2024 Top 50! - September 2024 - Winner
Athens Photo Festival 2024 - Shortlisted
Hamburg Portfolio Review - Participation
Follow-up / FUTURES Day - Participation
2023
International Fresh Eyes Talent - Winner
Photo Is:rael - Winner
Prix de la Photographie Paris - Press | Political - Gold
World Photo Annual - Photojournalism - Bronze
Photographic Explorations °01 - Exhibition
Helsinki Photo Festival - Shortlisted
Profifoto New Talent Award 23/2 - Shortlisted
RPS Documentary Photography Awards 2023- Shortlisted
20th Pollux Awards - Honorable Mention
ND Awards - Honorable Mention
EXHIBITIONS
2025
Reaching for Dusk - Encontros da Imagem Festival 2025 - Braga, Portugal
Reaching for Dusk - Rotterdam Photo Festival 2025 - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Reaching for Dusk - Lucie Scholarship Programm 2025 - Los Angeles, USA
2024
Reaching for Dusk - Glasgow Gallery of Photography - Reportage Exhibition 2024 - Glasgow, Scotland
Reaching for Dusk - Encontros da Imagem Festival 2024 - Braga, Portugal
Reaching for Dusk - Critical Mass 2024 Top 50! - Atlanta, USA
2023
Reaching for Dusk - International Fresh Eyes Talent 2023 - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Reaching for Dusk - Photo Is:rael 2023 - Tel Aviv, Israel
Reaching for Dusk - Photographic Explorations °01 - Exhibition 2023 - 254Forest - Brussels, Belgium
And When You See Me You Fall Apart - Speicherstadt - Hamburg, Germany
And When You See Me You Fall Apart - Abklatsch - Wiesbaden, Germany
PUBLICATIONS
The Guardian
Die Zeit
PÚBLICO
Frankfurter Rundschau