Ilir Tsouko

Ilir Tsouko was born in Albania in 1990 and raised in Athens, Greece. He is a visual storyteller specializing in documentary film and photography. Ilir is based in Berlin and Tirana. He is working on long-term projects revolving around perception and the creation of identity. Migration, social issues, and political events are subjects that he mostly follows.

Ilir studied Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography at Hochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences and Arts. During this time, he worked for Magnum photographers Enri Canaj and Chien-Chi Chang. Before that, he finished his MSc in Health Sciences at CNAM University in Paris/Athens.

He speaks and writes fluent German, Greek, English, and Albanian languages. Ilir’s work has been published by notable publications such as “The New York Times,” “Die Zeit Magazin,” “The Washington Post,” “The Guardian,” “Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ),” ARTE, ZDF, ARD, “Der Spiegel,” “Vogue,” “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ),” “Republik,” “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” Vincent Productions GmbH, “Fluter,” “Vice,” “The Calvert Journal,” Deutschlandfunk, Ö1, “Kathimerini” newspaper, “Docu Magazine,” “Are We Europe” (Studio), and other, primarily European magazines and newspapers. Ilir is collaborating with different NGOs and foundations like Der Greif Organisation for Contemporary Photography, Amnesty International, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Welthungerhilfe, Border Violence Monitoring Network, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, ERSTE Foundation, and Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.

Ilir is a member of Focus Agentur (Hamburg), Futures 2024 (Amsterdam), and the International Press Institute (Vienna).