Teacher and refugee students, Project Elea Library, Eleonas Refugee Camp, Athens, Greece, 2018

We ended our Fulbright stay in Greece by visiting a refugee camp on the outskirts of Athens. I photographed its library/classroom where a group of children was taking a language lesson. Their shoes outside the door reminded me of refugees belongings we had recently seen washed up on the shores of the Aegean Island of Samos. We finished by photographing a room leased by a group called Libraries Without Borders and containing an "Ideas Box" designed by Philippe Starck. I was fascinated by the creative thinking that went into producing this traveling library and resource center. The Ideas Box had just come from Jordan, and after Athens, it would travel on to another place of need.