CULTURE

Both familiar and unknown Greece shot by Magnum photographers

Are Greeks looking at their motherland from a different perspective these days? With a series of prominent international publications paying tribute to the country that is about to host the OIympic Games, Greece’s own citizens are forced into seeing things in different ways. «Periplous» (Circumnavigation), a show which opened recently at the Photography Museum in Thessaloniki, showcases images of Greece shot by a number of photographers from the renowned Magnum agency. The work of Lise Sarfati, Patrick Zachmann, Miguel Rio Branco, Jim Goldberg, Alex Webb, Carl de Kayzer, Nikos Economopoulos and Constantinos Manos evoke a familiar but at the same time unknown country: charming, full of energy and drama. Webb’s lens traveled to the north of Greece, while Economopoulos’s captured local customs. Goldberg took a look at immigrants living in Athens and de Kayzer gave a new dimension to the Parthenon and Cycladic houses. Sarfati visited Epirus’s Mastorohoria and Manos shot the capital’s urban landscape. Zachmann, on the other hand, recorded Greek nightlife. Under the aegis of the Cultural Olympiad, the show runs to May 16. It was curated by Sylviane de Decker-Heftler. These extraordinary images, perhaps a lesson in self-knowledge, are scheduled to travel to Athens this summer. They will be showcased at the Benaki Museum during the Olympic Games.

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