The history of the Greek railways and trams is a very interesting chapter in the recent history of our place, not only because of its peculiarity but also for the fact that our railways, from the time of their construction until today – the last 130 years and more – played an important role in many sectors of Greek society. The Encyclopedia of the Greek Railways and Tramways, which consists of the following six titles, was honored with the prize of the Academy of Athens in 2006.
One could say that most of the photographs used in the archives, publications and announcements of doctors, archaeologists and architects in universities, museums and ephorate of antiquities throughout northern Greece have passed through his hands.
His long-term collaboration with the staff of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Mount Athos became the occasion for a first trip to get acquainted with the Orchard of the Virgin Mary, which immediately sparked his artistic sense. The visits that followed were neither numerous, nor multi-day, nor systematic and organized. As soon as the needs of the job and the concern not to neglect any client left him some small margins, he took his motorbike, hurriedly visited some monasteries and went back in three or four days, occasionally photographing what he could afford, without the luxury to be able to study the object comfortably, to experiment, to choose the situations, the seasons, the hours and the lighting that would help him to better capture what he wanted. Nevertheless, the result is such that it can easily convince anyone who sees it, that it is really worthwhile for these simple images, taken without any demand or impressive tricks, to reach the interested public, even if they concern a place so much photographed , such as Mount Athos.
Engravings of the 20th century have not been included, although the collaborating collectors have such in their collections. The engravings of the book are divided into the following seven thematic sections: Maps and portmarks, Views of the city especially from its seafront, costumes of its people, monuments and architectural plans of its temples, important events, personalities of the city and scenes of everyday life. It should be noted that several of these monuments, some particularly important, no longer exist, such as the colonnade with the eight statues of the Enchanted (Las Incantadas), the Golden Gate (Gate of Anthony and Octavian), the seaside, the west, the east wall of the city, the wall of the White Tower, ottoman minarets.
Most of these engravings were inserted in travel or encyclopedic books or printed in magazines and newspapers, especially in the 19th century. Their printing in more copies, however limited in number, has been done with the known ways of engraving paintings on dies of various materials, with technical options such as woodcut, etching, lithography, steel, chromolithography, zinc. As early as the middle of the 19th century, instead of the classic painting, photography began to be used more and more widely as a basis for engraved depiction, first with the technique of woodcut and a little later with zinc plating (tsingography), which thus had much greater pictorial accuracy. This period, then, among other things, is marked by a great turning point in the gradual predominance of photography in print, in newspapers, books, encyclopedias.
The volume includes shots taken by two mainly military correspondents, accredited to the Greek army, during the first Balkan war. The first was Haworth Woodley, a former British Army officer with correspondence with the London-based Central News Agency. The second was Etienne Labranche, a correspondent for the Parisian newspaper Le Temps.
It is worth noting that the Greek authorities did not allow – except exceptionally – the presence of correspondents on the fronts of the first Balkan war. Most of the responses to the fighting were based on official press releases issued in Athens. The other Balkan countries took a similar stance. As the dating photos of Woodley and Labranche show, they were taken a few days after the battles, when they were allowed to visit the battlefields. In their photos they look for other aspects of life and events in the Greek countryside, beyond the battles. They locate and photograph the people of the countryside and the cities, the figures who lived next to the war, who often suffered because of it, the people who in their name and on their behalf the battles were finally fought.
The Museum, drawing material from its archive of photographs of the first Greek and foreign photographers who photographed Athens from the middle to the end of the 19th century, created a photo album that analyzes the history of photography, the evolution of the art of photography, the archaeological-recording photography, the history of the monuments of Athens, the course of the excavations in them, presenting at the same time the whole historical and social context of the time as well as its ideology that “armed” the photographer-artist to work and move his camera.
This tribute is an imaginary course that is bordered by the route that a modern walker can make, starting from the temple of Olympian Zeus and continuing with the Hadrian’s Gate, the monument of Lysikrates, the theater of Dionysus, the Herodion, the Propylaea , the temple of Athena Victory, the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the temple of Hephaestus, the gate of the Archangel, the tower of the Winds, the monument of Philopappos, from where he can gaze all over Athens, through photographic material from the first Greeks photographers such as Filippos Margaritis, Dimitrios Konstantinou, Konstantinos Athanassiou, Petros Moraitis, the Romaidis brothers, Nelly but also foreigners such as Henri Beck, John Stillman, Felix Bonfils, James Robertson, Underwood & Underwood. Chronologically, the photographs are placed from 1838 to 1900, while the presence of younger photographers, such as Nelly, aims to enrich the edition, highlighting the richness of the museum archive.
The short days of the battles and the German invasion of Russia just two months later (June 1941) overshadowed the battles on the “Silk Line” while the researchers had at their disposal a few original sources and photographic material. The vast majority of photographs from the German invasion of Greece, the Battle of Crete and the Occupation were taken by German photographers working for Nazi propaganda and performing an ordered service aimed at capturing the “greatness” of the German army for the coming generations. These are mainly photographs that were published in German books after the war and that appear regularly in Greek publications on the subject of the Greek-German war.
This book brings to light 400 anecdotal photographs of the Photography Museum “Christos Kalemkeris” of the Municipality of Kalamaria from the Battle of the Fortress and donated to the Museum in 2007 by Konstantinos Lagos. Most of these photos are original and unpublished. Their great value lies in the fact that they have been taken to the “front line” by German officers and hoplites. Unlike the official German propaganda photographers, these amateur photographers captured snapshots of the battles without being controlled by censorship, as they intended them as souvenirs for their personal albums. These amateur photos are historically considered more important than the so-called “official” ones, as they show the real face of the war, and not what the Nazi propaganda wanted to reveal to the German people, but also internationally. Through these photographs, framed by a thorough historical study, the modern reader has the opportunity to come in direct contact with unknown aspects of the Greek-German conflict, but also to obtain valuable information about the battles, the locations, the means available to the two. opponents, soldiers and officers who took part in the operations. The photographs and the accompanying text depict in the most realistic way the incredible cruelty of the clashes in the forts, both for the Greeks and the Germans.
Istanbul has been a city unique over the centuries. For the Greeks and Hellenism it was the “City”, not only because it was the largest city in population in the Middle Ages, but also because for them it was “the most beautiful city in the world”, as one of the protagonists of the film states that before a few years it came out in cinemas.
But beyond the Byzantine past of the city, the strong emotions that arouse in all of us the imposing Byzantine walls that project in every part of the city, the many remaining ruins of impressive public Byzantine buildings, the few orthodox churches and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Istanbul was undoubtedly a pole of attraction for foreigners. And here one does not need to rely only on the many sieges by enemies who plotted against the empire in its long history. They are also the thousands of ordinary visitors and travelers for whom Istanbul “of the Two Continents and the Three Seas” has been a pole of attraction throughout the centuries.
Istanbul has been a city unique over the centuries. For the Greeks and Hellenism it was the “City”, not only because it was the largest city in population in the Middle Ages, but also because for them it was “the most beautiful city in the world”, as one of the protagonists of the film states that before a few years it came out in cinemas.
But beyond the Byzantine past of the city, the strong emotions that arouse in all of us the imposing Byzantine walls that project in every part of the city, the many remaining ruins of impressive public Byzantine buildings, the few orthodox churches and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Istanbul was undoubtedly a pole of attraction for foreigners. And here one does not need to rely only on the many sieges by enemies who plotted against the empire in its long history. They are also the thousands of ordinary visitors and travelers for whom Istanbul “of the Two Continents and the Three Seas” has been a pole of attraction throughout the centuries.
These are 39 scenes from the revolution of 1821 and two snapshots from the reception of Otto upon his arrival in Greece. At the beginning of the album there is also a photograph of King George I, in whose honor Philip Margaritis created the album in order to dedicate it to the king as a sign of gratitude when the latter appointed him photographer of this basilica, in the year 1871.
The history of the city of Thessaloniki “hides” another liberation, less known but equally important for the history of the city, which, however, remained on the margins of memory. This is the liberation of Thessaloniki, this time by the forces of the German occupation. Few of our fellow citizens know that October is inextricably linked to the history of the city and for another, equally important reason, apart from the liberation in 1912 from the Ottoman yoke. It was the morning of October 30, 1944, when the 11th Division and the 50th ELAS Regiment entered the city solemnly to protect it from the complete destruction of its basic infrastructure, such as the aqueduct, the grain warehouses and the Allatini mill, the production factories as well as part of the port which had remained intact during the withdrawal of German troops.
The penultimate day of October ’44 was not just the last of the German military presence in Thessaloniki. There was also a day of celebration for all the inhabitants of the city. As of noon, as soon as the danger was removed from the retreating Germans, the crowd poured into the city and enthusiastically welcomed the parading guerrillas of the 11th division of ELAS. Many flags were raised in all the houses, Greek, allied, English, American and Russian. In a short time, honorary arches and wreaths were prepared for the liberators, who appeared in the streets of the city in the afternoon. ELAS units entered the coastal boulevard of Nikis and paralyzed, together with political units of the reserve ELAS, EPON and EAM resistance organizations for 2.5 hours in a frenzy of spontaneous enthusiasm.
The photographic material extracted from the rich archive of the Museum, presents in detail the above scenario. Writing a thorough research study without political staining and documenting the photographs through the diligent search for eyewitnesses and personal testimonies has not been an easy task. The very nature of the photographic material, paves the way for thorough research, as the faces of the time, are illuminated as a whole, in captured images of crowd, action and impressions, with the background of the houses and the streets, the emerging organization and the protagonists of those days. The past had not yet dried up while the uncertain future is reopening full of fears and hopes. The aim of this publication and the presentation of the photographic documents that accompany it is to present simply and without specialized alluvium, the context, the before and after the days of liberation, leaving for the liberation itself and the festive events a sufficient space to capture the lens the events of those hours. Dozens of survivors, of those unforgettable days, are among us, in old age. Many have testified, others are silent. It is a project that will be undertaken by the younger ones, based on the pages of this historical photo album.
