VOVOUSA - People and Costumes, Greece
42 images Created 10 Jun 2016
Vovousa People & Costumes in a struggle to protect their ecosystem.
Vovousa, a village of around 70 residents, is build on a 1000 meter hight, as part of the east Zagori villages of North Pindos mountain range in northern Greece. It most probably takes it's name from the sound of the river Aoos that runs through it. The Greek government wants to build a damn higher in the mountain, that will divert the flow of the river towards a local lake. That will deprive the village of it's water and it's natural beauty will be compromised by the resulting ecological disaster.
The villagers’ lives which for centuries have been depending on what their surrounding nature offered them, will be greatly affected. In order to fight against the construction of the damn, they have joined their efforts with environmental organisations, local municipalities and associations in a continuing struggle.
The people of Vovousa had learned how to survive by using recourses that the forest and the river could offer them, as in many winters the heavy slow that fell cut access to the village. Many of the men worked as lumberjacks and they used the river for transporting wood and for cutting it with a hydraulic woodcutter. They build their houses and furniture with local stones and wood. They kept domestic animals for meat, milk, cheese, eggs, wool and leather. The women used wool from their sheep to make yarn and then wove fabrics for making their clothes and linen. They wove their own carpets and produced vegetables in their houses’ vegetable gardens. For washing clothes and carpets they used a natural form of washing machine (nerotrivi) filled with water that freely flowed down from the mountain on it’s way to join Aoos river and in general they had a very self sustained lifestyle. Even now the village men’s main job is lumberjacks, all houses maintain vegetable gardens and domestic animals, and carpets are washed in the still functioning “nerotrivi” where the use of detergents is strictly prohibited.
People of Vovousa who are of Vlach origin, posed for arranged portraits dressed in traditional costumes, recreating scenes of the old village lifestyle that still survives in a less traditional form as nowadays the villagers are only dressed in these costumes for taking part in local festivals.
The photos were shown in exhibitions around Greece in an attempt to raise awareness on the issue.
Vovousa, a village of around 70 residents, is build on a 1000 meter hight, as part of the east Zagori villages of North Pindos mountain range in northern Greece. It most probably takes it's name from the sound of the river Aoos that runs through it. The Greek government wants to build a damn higher in the mountain, that will divert the flow of the river towards a local lake. That will deprive the village of it's water and it's natural beauty will be compromised by the resulting ecological disaster.
The villagers’ lives which for centuries have been depending on what their surrounding nature offered them, will be greatly affected. In order to fight against the construction of the damn, they have joined their efforts with environmental organisations, local municipalities and associations in a continuing struggle.
The people of Vovousa had learned how to survive by using recourses that the forest and the river could offer them, as in many winters the heavy slow that fell cut access to the village. Many of the men worked as lumberjacks and they used the river for transporting wood and for cutting it with a hydraulic woodcutter. They build their houses and furniture with local stones and wood. They kept domestic animals for meat, milk, cheese, eggs, wool and leather. The women used wool from their sheep to make yarn and then wove fabrics for making their clothes and linen. They wove their own carpets and produced vegetables in their houses’ vegetable gardens. For washing clothes and carpets they used a natural form of washing machine (nerotrivi) filled with water that freely flowed down from the mountain on it’s way to join Aoos river and in general they had a very self sustained lifestyle. Even now the village men’s main job is lumberjacks, all houses maintain vegetable gardens and domestic animals, and carpets are washed in the still functioning “nerotrivi” where the use of detergents is strictly prohibited.
People of Vovousa who are of Vlach origin, posed for arranged portraits dressed in traditional costumes, recreating scenes of the old village lifestyle that still survives in a less traditional form as nowadays the villagers are only dressed in these costumes for taking part in local festivals.
The photos were shown in exhibitions around Greece in an attempt to raise awareness on the issue.
