Project description:
"The Typhoon is the only vessel in the Mediterranean with the sole purpose to clean up the most inaccessible Greek coast lines, which has become, unfortunately, in some places a waste concentration. This initiative is within the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation “Project Typhoon”, an important and indeed ambitious initiative for the maritime environment and its maintenance. Typhoon operates in the Greek waters as the catalyst for the protection of the environment from pollution and fulfills the scope for the mega vision and mission set by the Foundation’s founder; to contribute with determination in the clean-up of Greece’s coast lines as well as that of its thousand islands – small and big ones, from any type of pollutants.”

Pygmalion Karatzas Photography was selected by the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation to document the Typhoon Project is various locations. In April 2021 the islands of Lymnos and Agios Efstratios in the north part of the Aegean Sea were visited. For 4 days we followed the crew’s schedule, living onboard the Typhoon vessel, and photographing the shorelines as they were cleaned. In July 2021 a 2nd expedition visited the islands of Samothraki and Thasos for 5 days. End of July - beginning of August, a 3rd expedition visited Mont Athos. The cleaning operations take place daily in two shifts, 8 am - 12 am the morning shift and 3 pm - 7 pm the afternoon shift. Emphasis is given to remote and beaches difficult to approach by land, where 3 zodiac type boats with the cleaning crew inspect and collect litter to be taken on board the Typhoon vessel for separation and storage before their final recycling destination in specialised processing facilities on land. The coordinates, shoreline mileage, weight and type are recorded as well as the before and after condition of the beach. In this submitted series we present aerial images looking straight down, planar views from various heights to both capture the scale of the locations and the operations in action. 

In total the Typhoon stayed in Lymnos island for 122 days and cleaned 206 beaches. It covered 94.529 meters of shoreline and removed more than 57 tones of garbage, in their majority plastic.

My thanks to programs coordinator Peggy Xirotagarou, executive director Dr. Angeliki Kosmopoulou and chairman of the board Evi Lazou for entrusting me with the documentation of this project. I would also like to thank Typhoon Project coordinator Michalis Prevenios and the whole crew of the Typhoon vessel for assisting with the assignment.

Drone collaborator (Lymnos & Agios Efstratios): Christos Kodellas / Xtreme Camera Production.
Drone collaborator (Samothraki & Thasos): Gerasimos Michalopoulos.  
Drone collaborator (Mont Athos): Giorgos Strickler.  

Links:
Pygmalion Karatzas Photography: www.pygmalionkaratzas.com
A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation: www.aclcf.org
 
Video with works and locations from Mont Athos:
https://vimeo.com/582816394
Production coordination: Peggy Xirotagarou, Michalis Prevenios, Pygmalion Karatzas.
Filming, director of photography, editing: Pygmalion Karatzas.
Drone operator: Giorgos Strigler.
Soundtrack: Schiller - Desert Empire, Album 'Opus'.
Date: 29 July - 2 August 2021.