Maria Triantafyllou

My name is Maria Triantafyllou and I come from the north Greek city of Thessaloniki. I am 28 years old and I recently graduated from Aristotle University’s Art School, specifically the Film Department. My degree is an integrated Master (EU level 7), with specialization in Direction of Photography and research in Screenwriting. My debut in practicing Arts was in 2016, when I made my first student film. In the period of 2018 and 2019 I co- directed two short films: “Berenice” which has participated in several national and international festivals and “Helona” which is currently on festival route. Also, 2016 was the year that I realized my love for still photography, experimenting with landscape and natural elements. From 2018, my applied research on Arts, includes experimenting on creating narrative through the human body forms. My inspiration comes mostly from the topics of dreams, mental automation, human sensations and paroxysm, including also religions, spirituality and archetypes. Soon, I expanded my creative process in creating video art and video performances, while being part of the greek multidisciplinary collective 2.0. At the same time I am finding myself trying different workspaces that vary from national TV, film crews and of course, freelancing. In the beginning of 2021, I moved to Paris to chase my dream in entering the fashion industry, as I started my internship in JXT Photographics Ltd. My role in this structure is varying from time to time- with my main occupations being video editor and colorist- but taking up tasks as junior Art Director- Copywriter and DoP assistant, when needed. As my internship comes to its end, I feel very honored for the chance that was given to me, but I took the decision to leave this city for the moment, with the main reasons being the difficulty of a non- French speaking person really thriving there, as well as the conservatism of Parisian fashion world that doesn’t actually apply to me at this moment of my life. The harsh and challenging environments of the greek working class, as well as the Parisian fashion world, have equipped me with the education and the ability to take up different tasks and have a rounded knowledge on lots of subjects on the filmmaking field in order to make myself competitive. My short- term aspiration is to manage to survive exclusively from an occupation that has to do with my studies- ideally being a photographer or being part of a professional film crew either in fashion, cinema or advertising. At the same time, I would like to also keep on working on my personal projects, with a long- term aspiration to shoot my own feature film in the next 5 years.