Βorn in Greece in 1962, the artist and illustrator Photini Stephanidi – daughter of the painter Yannis Stephanidis – completed her studies in painting and fresco at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1986, where her teachers included painters of international repute such as Giannis Moralis, Dimitris Mytaras and Constantine Xinopoulos.
Since 1988 she has exhibited her work in seventeen individual and many group and international exhibitions of painting, engraving and illustration both in Greece and abroad. Her pictures have featured in about eighty published works, including editions of Greek folk tales, literature and poetry, and she has made a speciality of collectors’ editions.
Notable among the many prizes and distinctions her work has gained are the Bratislava Illustrators’ Biennale Plaque (2001), the Greek State Prize for Illustration (2003, 2007 and 2011), the Belgrade Illustrators’ Biennale ‘Golden Pen’ (2005 and 2013) and ‘Plaquette’ (2010), the first prize for illustrations from the Greek Section of IBBY (1995, 2005 and 2011), EBGE prize and mention 2007 and 2013, her selection as the Hellenic Republic’s candidate for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Prize, and for the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards.
Artwork