April-May 2016

The Thessaloniki Museum of Photography presents a series of screenings on the work of four photographers who were active in Greece the first three quarters of the 20th century, bringing to light parts of its collections and archives.
Curation: Stergios Karavatos

Yiannis Stylianou Archive
Yiannis Stylianou (1941-1996) was born in Thessaloniki. He first became interested in art during his studies at the American College. He studied at the Law School of Thessaloniki and worked for Alyssida, the shoemaking family business.
He became seriously involved with photography at the end of the 1950’s, due to his acquaintance with photographer Kyriakos Apostolidis. He was actually though self taught in photography and practiced it for just a few years in the second half of the 1960’s.
With the support of poet Ntinos Christianopoulos, his photographs were published, mainly through the magazine Diagonios. After his personal show in 1970, Stylianou interrupted his engagement with photography.
In just a few years he created a personal artistic style that combined formalistic articulation with a piercing social view.
In 2002 the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography organized a retrospective exhibition of Stylianou’s work, entitled “The Lucid Vision and the Noble Paradox”.
His family donated his photographic archive and library to Thessaloniki Museum of Photography.

Dimitris Letsios Archive
Dimitris Letsios (1910-2008) was born in Anakassia, Volos. He dropped out of school at an early age and worked in his father’s bakery. A self taught photographer, he apprenticed briefly at the studio of Babis Basdekis, a Volos-based photographer.
In 1956 he set up a branch of the Greek Photography Club (EFE) in Volos. He won distinctions and awards both in Greece and abroad (Berlin and Budapest).
Dimitris Letsios is one of the most prominent figures of modern Greek photography. A tireless traveler, he recorded for over 60 years the Greek landscape, the folk culture, the anonymous peasant.
His archive, dating from late mid-war years and covering the whole post-war period, constitutes a precious artistic, historic, folkloric and social heritage.
In 2005 the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography organized a retrospective exhibition of Letsios’ work, entitled “A journey into the Light and Shadow of Greece”.
In 2006 Dimitris Letsios donated his photographic archive to Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

Socrates Iordanidis Archive
Socrates Iordanidis (1912-1985) was born in Constantinople. In 1922 he moved with his family in Thessaloniki. His father was also a photographer.
He worked in the field of photo-reportage and co-operated with all Thessaloniki newspapers, the United States Information Service, the National Theater of Northern Greece, the State Symphony Orchestra of Northern Greece, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and several consulates.
After the war he co-operated with photographer Michalis Tsolakidis and in 1974 he created his own workshop.
Part of his archive belongs to the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and the National Theater of Northern Greece.

Leonidas Papazoglou
(George Golobias’ collection)
Leonidas Papazoglou (1872-1918) was born in Kastoria. He apprenticed into the art of photography in Constantinople and when he returned to his birth town he opened a photography studio.
George Golobias, who passed away untimely, a doctor, researcher on Kastoria’s history and collector, salvaged and promoted Leonidas Papazoglou archive, which constitutes a significant testimony of the social and economic life of Kastoria and its vicinity in the beginning of the 20th century, and at the same time an important photographic work.
The archive consists mainly of personal and group portraits of inhabitants of the Kastoria area, and of soldiers or armed men of various national groups. A smaller proportion of the photographs show scenes of daily life, events and social gatherings.
In 2004 the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography organized the exhibition “Photographic Portraits from Kastoria and its vicinity at the time of the Macedonian Struggle”, curated by Costis Antoniadis, that made the work of Leonidas Papazoglou widely known.
The prints, archival digital reproduction from negative photographic glass plates, are part of the Museum’s collection, courtesy of George Golobias Collection.