I’ve skyped Angelos Giotopoulos just as he’s about to head off to a meeting downtown for his next project.

“It’s hush hush – a friend’s baby,” says Angelos, “a thriller, but I can’t say too much,” he adds mysteriously. But then this creative Aussie Athenian is always up to something new.

It’ll be his second foray into film making. Better known for his powerful documentary photography, his first film, made earlier this year, was a poetic reflection on the Athens suburb of Psiri. Its title, Melanthiou – a sunny street for shady people, is the perfect tagline for what it portrays – a gentle slice of life in inner-city Athens – but it also hints at something deeper – Giotopoulos’ playful inquiring nature and his work as a compelling storyteller through the lens.

Born in 1977, the youngest of two brothers, Angelos grew up in Melbourne, “like any other Greek Aussie, a blue collar home, and living in the suburbs”. Mulgrave was his stomping ground, his father (from Larissa) a baker, and mother (from Mytiline), a seamstress.

“Both my parents worked like champs ‘to give us a better life’, as they kept telling us, and in essence, they provided that,” says Angelos. “Our generation was a fortunate one.”

In 1986 the family moved to Greece, but didn’t stick. A year later he found himself back in Victoria. While teachers praised his potential, Angelos admits he wasn’t a model pupil.

“I used to go to school to see my mates, really, I didn’t take it too seriously; I was one of the smart arses.”

Though not particularly academically motivated, an artistic flair began to filter through. He drew. Secondary college followed, after which he took a sports therapy course enabling him to work as a therapist. A string of odd jobs came and went. A move to Byron Bay for a year saw him taking photos for the local rag – the Byron Shire News, but soon the metropolis was calling him home.

Back in Melbourne, Angelos reconnected with his mates, who happened to be studying photography at RMIT.

“I tried to get in some lectures,” says Angelos, “but I’d get kicked out, so I’d hang out with the dude in control of giving out equipment to the students.”

“I was shooting for myself at that stage – a sort of rogue photographer.”

Angelos’ informal relationship with RMIT proved increasingly productive. Allowed to include some of his prints as part of a students’ show, it was there he would sell his first photograph – a landscape of Half Moon Bay at Black Rock, with the buyer being the noted Melbourne artist Richard Morrison.
After this first taste of success, Angelos combined shooting with work in one of Melbourne’s great industries – coffee.

“I worked freelance for a few magazines while being a coffee delivery boy, and in doing so I learned so much about Melbourne – the ins and outs of the culture.

“It’s amazing what a bit of coffee bean can offer you and who you can meet. It’s the same as the camera. It grants you access to places – an ID to go practically anywhere.”

And anywhere – away from Australia – was where Angelos was headed. By the early 2000s the streets of the Victorian capital had become all too familiar. There was another world out there and Giotopoulos wanted to experience it. The time had come ‘to do Europe’.

“I didn’t really ‘move’ to Greece,” he says.

“I arrived in Athens in 2004 as a starting point for a ‘Euro trek’, but I had a one way ticket.”

As the Olympic Games returned triumphantly to their place of birth, Angelos and a mate landed a job with the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world – part of a team helping set up a merchandise superstore near the Olympic village. It was a means to an end.

“It was about making coin for future unplanned endeavours,” says Angelos.

The Olympics – and the euphoria that arrived with it – came and went. Meanwhile, the Greek capital was now home to Angelos and soon he was plying his trade as a freelance photographer – pitching photo stories to Athens-based magazines with ever greater success.

“I just kept running around and selling to the domestic industry, then slowly slowly European and international titles started buying my work,” he says.

By the late 2000s Angelos was in demand, covering stories inside and outside Greece for Kapa magazine, Newsweek, BHMA, Taxydromos (Ta Nea) and a host of other titles.

But as the Greek economic crisis deepened, the stories the world wanted to see – and editors wanted to pay for – were much closer to home. The Greek debt crisis – and its reverberations – had arrived big-time.

As waves of social unrest at the enforced austerity measures ignited riots on the streets of central Athens in 2010, Angelos was in the right place at the right time.

“So many agencies were pumped into Greece. It was a really good time to be a photographer here,” says Ange.

Did he sympathise with those protesting?

“I didn’t take sides, but if you sat me down, I’d say I’m against a lot of things that have happened, and are happening to Greece, but in my profession I shoot what I see.

“It was about people fighting something that was pushed on them, that’s the way I look at it.”

2010 was a watershed for Angelos in more personal ways too. He married “the girl next door”, Petroula, who works in publishing. Even the wedding itself was permeated by the impact of the crisis.

“On our wedding day when we came out of the dimarxio, instead of confetti in the air there was tear gas.”

While the storm may have passed, Angelos believes there are lessons to be learned both from the crisis and the challenges Greece still faces: it’s all about self-belief and generational change.

“When a country hits rock bottom the first thing to blossom is creativity and I see that here,” he says.

“Do your thing to the best of your ability and move with the times. Your thoughts create the world you live in, so if you want to look at things negatively, then that’s what you’ll get.”

Four years ago, an example of Angelos’ positive philosophy was his establishing of the Falcon Photo Agency – a device to promote not just his own work but the work of emerging photo-journalists.

“I like helping people out who have great work and can’t get it published,” he says.

“I step in and propose the work to the markets that I’ve found in Europe.”

The relative peace in Athens today is something Giotopoulos welcomes. Perhaps fatherhood (he became a dad to Eleftherios in March 2013) has had its effect too. Has the patter of little feet altered his look on life?

“It’s changed me, but I can’t say how,” says Angelos.

“It’s added another responsibility, to keep me on my toes I guess.”

Reflecting on a decade as an Athenian, this father, filmmaker, photographer and storyteller has no regrets, and his message of hope for his adopted and adored country is simple and profound.

“Greece will thrive if the right mindset is put in place,” he says.

“Keep the same vibe as before, but allow smart youngsters to do their thing – without them being fearful of taking a step forward or taking a risk.
“They need backing from the older generation. It’s the only way forward.”

To see Angelos Giotopoulos’ film Melanthiou – a sunny street for shady people go to http://vimeo.com/97068694