Yorgos Lanthimos at Onassis Stegi with his first photography exhibition in Greece, “Photographs”

Yorgos Lanthimos unveils his largest photography exhibition at Onassis Stegi, revealing a cinematic gaze beyond the frame.

Yorgos Lanthimos, one of the most distinctive auteurs of world cinema, has been internationally acclaimed for creating imaginary worlds and for his bold, paradoxical explorations of human relationships, qualities that have established him as one of the most singular voices in contemporary filmmaking. Now, at the Onassis Stegi, we are invited to experience a rare artistic event: the largest exhibition of Lanthimos’s photographs ever presented by a cultural institution.

“Photography has become an important part of my life, beyond cinema. It gives me much greater freedom; I feel there are fewer rules related to conventional storytelling.” – Yorgos Lanthimos

The exhibition Photographs, on view from March 7 to May 17, offers audiences an unprecedented encounter with Lanthimos’s now-celebrated visual language, unfolding here through a different medium–photography. It is a cinematic gaze that captures fleeting moments and suspends them in the stillness of immortality.

The Onassis Stegi has demonstrated a sustained commitment to photography through a series of major exhibitions, including those dedicated to Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Christian Boltanski, and Juergen Teller. In his first collaboration with the Stegi, Lanthimos brings together four bodies of work comprising 182 photographs from the past five years, offering new perspectives for a deeper understanding of this singular and idiosyncratic visionary.

The exhibition includes three photographic series that emerged from the environments of his films. These images were taken on the margins of film shoots–in urban locations such as New Orleans, Atlanta, and Henley-on-Thames (England), as well as in studios in Budapest, where entire cities were constructed as cinematic sets. Many of the photographs appear in his recent books: Dear God, the Parthenon Is Still Broken (2024), featuring images shot during the filming of Poor Things (2023); i shall sing these songs beautifully (2024), created alongside Kinds of Kindness (2024); and viscin (2026), which includes a series of previously unpublished photographs taken on the set of his latest film, Bugonia (2025).

The fourth body of work is presented for the first time worldwide. It is an ongoing series of personal photographs taken in his homeland, Greece. In these images–gathered during solitary walks on the outskirts of Athens and visits to Greek islands–Lanthimos focuses with a calm, contemplative gaze on the everyday and the commonplace, harnessing the medium’s capacity for abstraction and transformation.

Across Lanthimos’s photographic oeuvre, one discerns a reflective engagement with the mundane and the familiar. Through his lens, he renders the immediacy of his subjects with remarkable clarity and intimacy, capturing a world both unique and complex. As in his cinema, a language emerges that functions as an archive of its own making–a luminous depiction of phenomena themselves.

Designed in the form of a classical Greek temple, the exhibition creates a central space reminiscent of an altar, where 110 new works by Lanthimos are displayed. Along the outer perimeter, the three bodies of work connected to his films are presented, guiding visitors from his well-known cinematic universe toward the inner core of his new photographic practice.

The exhibition “Yorgos Lanthimos: Photographs” is curated by Michael Mack, commissioned and produced by the Onassis Stegi, with architectural design by Loukas Baka. On the occasion of the exhibition’s opening, Yorgos Lanthimos will present his new photography book, viscin (2026).

Curator Michael Mack notes:
“Yorgos Lanthimos possesses a unique talent for using the lens to create narratives, and this exhibition highlights his ever-evolving ability to provoke emotional and intellectual leaps of faith beyond the frame of a static image. The ongoing black-and-white series created in Greece, away from his cinematic practice, marks a new beginning–a turn toward a familiar landscape. Emerging from a long photographic tradition of documenting landscapes altered by human intervention, it also reflects a period of introspection and a significant advancement in the shaping of his own photographic language.”

The Onassis Shop offers Lanthimos’s photography publications as well as exhibition memorabilia.

Yorgos Lanthimos

Yorgos Lanthimos is an internationally acclaimed director, producer, and screenwriter, a five-time Academy Award nominee and recipient of numerous distinctions, including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, the Jury Prize at Cannes, and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

His distinguished filmography includes Kinetta, Dogtooth, Alps, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness.

Born in Athens, Lanthimos began his career directing dance theatre performances, as well as television commercials, music videos, short films, and theatre productions. Beyond cinema, he is also an accomplished photographer, collaborating on editorials and fashion campaigns. He has published two photography books—Dear God, the Parthenon Is Still Broken (VOID) and i shall sing these songs beautifully (MACK)—and in March 2026 he will present his new photography book, viscin (2026).

As part of its ongoing commitment to equal access to culture, the Onassis Stegi collaborates with Alpha Bank, Accessibility Sponsor of the exhibition.

Through this partnership, the exhibition becomes accessible to all, offering guided tours in Greek Sign Language for Deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors, as well as tours with live audio description for visitors with visual impairments, in collaboration with the cultural organization liminal.

The shared goal of this collaboration is to remove barriers to artistic experience and to highlight art as a common ground for encounter–so that accessibility functions as a tool for equality and universal participation.

The detailed program and dates of the accessible tours will be announced soon at onassis.org.