Born in Athens, she attended the School of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Studies in the USA followed, where she completed a documentary program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. Myrto returned to her old stomping grounds in 2010, amidst the financial crisis – and ever since, now based in Greece, she has traveled abroad frequently for various projects and professional commitments. She has also been collaborating with illustrious media outlets from across the world, including National Geographic magazine, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian and Die Zeit, among others, as well as international organizations, bodies and institutes.

Her romance with the lens began in adolescence and continued at the School of Fine arts, when she chose to do her final project on photography. However, although photography has been ever-present in her life as an art medium of expression and narration, the specific genre that granted Myrto the freedom to explore humans in depth is documentary photography. As she explains, “it gave me the impetus to delve deeper into its subjects because in its realization, as a genre and as a methodology, documentary requires time and gives me a sense of depth. It lacks the ephemeral approach of, for example, street photography or photojournalism. At the same time, documentary involves research, which also interests me a lot – this is research that concerns different elements: anthropological, investigative, historical, scientific, as well as the discourse between them.”

Thematically, she gravitates toward sociological approaches; she’s a “researcher and observer of the world and society,” as she says succinctly. Her aim is to investigate society not necessarily within an urban space but on a wider basis of demographics who might create their own societies – where Western-style frameworks are usually absent. Other elements that greatly interest her are myth, mystery and spirituality. These are exactly what her current photographic project that is underway in Crete is focused on.

Looking back to her portfolio, her first complete work took place in Thrace. The project began in her student years and came to completion six years later, seeing her immortalize on film the Muslim community that lived in the caves and around the castle of Didimoteicho. It brought her a scholarship and laid the groundwork for her personal and professional evolution. Myrto says, “as a person, I always take steps ahead but also look back. In my work, there is a dialogue between present and past.” In 2010, “The Attendants” focused on the sex trade and sex market in Greece – intending to raise awareness, give these people a voice, and break social taboos. “It was a multimedia photo project that included spoken voice, text and image, because I found difficulty in narrating situations I could not photograph. All this helped me
evolve my methodology for the narrative process, for speaking about something by freeing myself from the photographic medium,” she notes.