From February 01, 2026 to February 28, 2026
When The Pavement Breathes is a vivid exploration of the unnoticed moments that quietly transform the mundane into the extraordinary. Rooted in spontaneous, candid observation, this body of work traces the pulse of the street, where chance encounters fleeting gestures, and unguarded expressions briefly surface before dissolving back into routine. The photographs, made across cities and streets in different parts of the world, reveal unexpected juxtapositions and subtle details that disrupt habitual ways of seeing.
Despite their varied geographic origins, the images speak a shared visual language. Humor, irony, beauty, and oddity emerge not as cultural exceptions, but as universal human experiences. Familiar gestures repeat across borders; emotions echo from place to place. In this way, the work emphasizes how daily life, wherever it unfolds, carries more in common than we often assume.
Moving through these global yet intimate moments, the series invites viewers to slow down and rediscover wonder within the everyday. Shadows converse with architecture, bodies mirror their surroundings, and the ordinary becomes momentarily strange or luminous. When The Pavement Breathes suggests that the street itself is alive, responsive, expressive, and filled with quiet surprises just beneath the surface. By paying attention to what is often overlooked, the work reframes the urban landscape as a living gallery, where the most compelling moments are unscripted and universally human.
Curator: Harvey Stein
Margarita Mavromichalis speaks five languages and studied translation and interpreting. She likes to think that photography is her second language, as it’s a universal language, one that is understood by all across the world and conveys messages in the most powerful way.
Margarita moved to New York in 2009. She continued her studies for three years at the International Center of Photography where she also served as a Teaching Assistant for several years. In 2014 she moved back to Greece where she devoted most of her work covering the refugee crisis as it developed on the island of Lesvos. She currently works in Greece.
Margarita is mostly attracted to street photography and the elements that evoke emotions and surprise in our everyday life. Furthermore, she is passionate about documenting current events that she feels very strongly about, highlighting their social impact. Her work has been displayed in exhibitions in New York, Boston, San Diego, The Museum of the City of New York, the Brooklyn Historical Society and most recently in Budapest, Athens, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, London and lately in Tokyo. Selected images are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York and the Brooklyn Historical Society.
She has been published by the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post and her work is also featured in numerous photography publications by teNeues, Prestel and Hoxton Mini Press. She is the winner of the Pollux Award (2016), the Julia Margaret Cameron Award (2018 and 2020), finalist at the Miami Street Photography Festival (2018 and 2020), was nominated for the 2019 Prix Pictet Hope Award. In 2021, she won a Gold Medal at the Budapest International Foto Awards, and a Silver Medal at the Prix de la Photographie Paris. In 2023, Margarita was nominated for the prestigious Leica Oscar Barnack Award. Finally, in 2025 she was awarded third place at the Eyeshot publisher competition, receiving a street photography book contract, and was selected as a finalist at the Lensculture Street Photography awards.
Margarita teaches numerous workshops around the world during which she mainly focuses on street photography. She enjoys sharing her passion for photography with like-minded people and discovering cultures and places through her lens.
