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Gold 2022 People / Culture

Silent Service: The Monks of Mount Athos

  • Photographer
    Mohammad Kamal
  • Prize
    Gold in People / Culture

This photographic series is the result of an immersive 4-day journey to the Mount Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece. The area is an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism, and is home to over 2,000 monks from around the world. I chose to name the series ‘Silent Service’ as everything during my visit seemed to occur in hushed tones. The monks eat, work and pray in near-total silence, and often communicate in abbreviated, modest, and subtle gestures. Their lives are built on service, whether to a higher power or towards the community.

Mo Kamal is a landscape and portraiture photographer based in Dubai. His work has featured in international exhibitions including the Xposure Photography Festival in Sharjah, UAE, as well as a solo exhibition at The Empty Quarter Fine Art Photography Gallery in Dubai. His work has won winning placements in the Prix de la Photographie de Paris (PX3) contest, the Epson Pano Awards, and featured in the final rounds of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum International Photography Awards. Mo lives in the UAE with his family.