OUR photo exhibition for Nelly V Benaki Museum the streets of Piraeus is moving. And attendance is great. Her appeal Greek photographythrough the work of its mythical figures, presents a historically fresh question and leads us to a map of self-consciousness associated with the extraversion of photography, the organization of archives, and the emotional and ideological background for the reception of photographers. 19th and 20th centuries.

And Nelly’s case itself follows this trajectory of ascension into the sphere of public interest, starting from the late 80’s and early 90’s, when there was a significant shift in the look into the depths of History. It was an international change, accelerated by the end of the then old world of the Cold War, which unleashed a search for new links to the past. And if we go back a little, after the oil crisis of 1973, the first serious attempts to reorganize historical memory can be found in the international arena.

Nelly, T. Voula Papaioannou, Kostas Balafas, Spyros Melecis, Dimitris Charisiadis, Dimitris Papademos, Maria Chrusaki, Takis Tloupas and so many other leading pioneers of photography have gradually become part of the general subconscious. The desire to redefine Greekness after the trauma of the dictatorship dates back to post-colonial times. Banks with historical archives and institutions, the emergence of the Benaki Museum with a more active role in Greek society and with the stamp of Angelos Delivorrias, the birth of ELIAS in 1980 by Manos Charitatos define a framework, a hotbed of new need.

But the general interest in Greek photographers capable of carrying this burden of collective representation has mostly emerged after 1990. It was the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Greece (and elsewhere) there was a renewed interest in pre-1940 Europe, accompanied by a desire to know the world, in communion with the broader Hellenism.

Nelly, Voula Papaioannou, Costas Balafas, Spyros Meletsis, Dimitris Charisiadis and many other pioneers of photography gradually became part of the common subconscious.

Nelly’s has been at the forefront of this interest since the mid-1980s. Her Self-Portrait, edited by Emmanuel H. Kasdagli, was the publication that set the tone in 1989. Already in 1987, Nelli’s Interwar Photographs were presented, created in collaboration between the Society for the Study of Modern Greek Culture and the Benaki Museum, again curated by Kasdaglis. Photographers who completed their biological cycle at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. they managed to get unprecedented publicity. Nelly’s and Voula Papaioannou donate their files to the Benaki Museum Photo Archive. With Fani Constantinou, the photographic heritage of the Benaki Museum is gradually being opened up to the public.

Files

Even the renovation of the central building in Rue Kompari sped up procedures and systematized research, as the Photoarchive later found its headquarters in Rue Piraeus. However, the greats of photography, together with Kostas Balafas and Spyros Melecis, are defining a new vision of heritage. What Alkis Xantakis began in an unsuspecting time by writing the main history of Greek photography was continued throughout Greece. In 1997 the Museum of Photography of Thessaloniki opens, after the first attempts already in the 80s. Separate institutions with history, such as Rhizarios with the late Angelos Kitso, present photographs of Boisson, contributing to the re-mythologization of Greece.

Thanks also to the late collector Giorgos Golombia, an excellent figure, the case of the Kastorian photographer Leonidas Papazoglou emerges. Old Katerini is being revived thanks to the festivals photographed by the Thessalonian Yannis Stylianou. Volos is dominated by Dimitris Letsios. The figure of Panos Iliopoulos appears in Kalamata. In Kythira, Yiannis Stafatos shows us the case of Panagiotis Fatsea. In Larisa, the legacy of Takis Tlupas still continues to produce events. The Agioreitika Photo Library promotes a monumental and silent project. The archives of Dimitris Papadimos (ELIA-MIET) and Dimitris Charisiadis (Benakis) are two other pillars of research.

The current exhibition about Nelly, perfect and exciting in every respect, continues and expands the line of self-consciousness. In the history of Greek photography, countless cases shine.