Stefanos Kouratzis is an award-winning visual storyteller, photographer, writer, and educator based in Cyprus. He is the Artistic Director of LiPhoFe – Limassol Photography Festival.

 

His first photobook, “Ammochostos – The Algos of Nostos” (ISBN: 978-9925-632-16-9), was published in 2024.

​

He studied at Focus School of Art Photography, Video and New Technologies in Athens, and continued his professional development with programs at MoMA (New York) and Magnum Photos.

In 2018, he represented Cyprus at the 16th Venice Biennale of Architecture, presenting three photographic projects for the Cyprus Pavilion I Am Where You Are.

 

In 2021, he contributed a photographic series to the first retrospective “Past-forward: Stavros Economou Unarchived” at the State Gallery of Contemporary Art (SPEL) in Nicosia. The work was also projected at Le Corbusier’s Unité d'habitation in Marseille.

 

As Artistic Director of LiPhoFe, he co-curated the main exhibition “Place or Landscape” (2023), and in 2024 curated all seven exhibitions of the festival under the theme “Athlos,” also authoring the accompanying texts.

 

His curatorial work includes Marat Hasanov’s “Duality” (2024) in Limassol and two exhibitions by award-winning photographer Sebastian Rich (2022), organized in collaboration with UNHCR Cyprus and Universitas Foundation.

 

The Press and Information Office of Cyprus has commissioned several of his projects, including “SHE Cyprus in the Feminine” and “Kticic.” These works have been exhibited at the Nicosia International Festival, the National Austrian Library (Vienna), the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), the Museum of Byzantine Culture (Thessaloniki), and The House of Cyprus (Athens).

 

His photography has received recognition from the Gomma Photography Grant, PDN Photo Annual, IPA, PX3, and the Fujifilm EuroPress Awards (Cyprus).

 

Over the years, he has collaborated with leading international media organizations including AFP, Reuters, AP, Xinhua, France24, Arte, and BBC Radio. He has covered major events in conflict zones such as the Lebanon War, the Gaza Strip, Iran, and the Bam earthquake, and was embedded on a USS aircraft carrier during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

 

As an educator, he teaches photography, history, theory, aesthetics, and visual storytelling to emerging artists and students.

 

His work is included in private collections in Cyprus and abroad, and his articles on photography and journalism have been published in Cyprus, Greece, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland.

 

He is a member of the Union of Cyprus Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and a former member of the Performance Evaluation Committee (EAP) of the THYMELI Scheme, serving under the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC) (2022–2023) and subsequently under the Deputy Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cyprus (2024–2025).

 

Kouratzis continually explores photography as a medium. His work is diverse, layered, and multidisciplinary, balancing long-term projects with ongoing explorations in visual storytelling.

 

“Photography unlocks the chains of reality.”

​