Gas Factory

The Athenian factory of the French Gas Company was founded in 1857. The bricks, the roof tiles and other building materials, as well as most of the machinery, were shipped from France.
At the time of the German occupation in Athens, the Nazis wanted to requisition the gas factory, but changed their mind when they realized that the technology it used was outdated. When I stepped through the main gate for the first time in 1982, I felt as if I had travelled back in time, more specifically, back in 1857.

The working conditions had remained the same for the last 125 years. This sense of nostalgia and the faces of the workers who breathed life into the factory was the reason I kept visiting the place for two years. For me, getting to know the people who worked under such harsh conditions was an important precondition for photographing them.