MADE OF STONE

I met Emvis for the first time in 2006. He had come to Greece from Albania at the age of 16, in the early ‘90s. Alone, without parents or friends, he crossed the country almost on foot to reach Marmari, perhaps the least inhabited village of Mesa Mani. There he met Papa-Mitsos, an elderly builder and stone craftsman, who, having no children himself, took the boy under his protection teaching him the traditional art of stone building. Emvis still lives in Mani having created his own family, and is a traditional stone building contractor himself with his own crew. I followed them during spring and summer of 2011, photographing them at work. These may be a few of the last remaining traditional stone craftsmen in Mesa Mani.