PHOTO:Robert McCabe-The Island That Seduced The World
Born in Chicago in 1934, Robert McCabe made his first visit to Greece in 1954 as a student at Princeton University. He soon began taking photographs which documented life in Greece, from archaeological sites and landscapes to everyday events and people, at a time when the country was still largely untouched by tourism.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades Archive
Robert MacCabe, who was recently awarded by the Academy of Athens, organize an outdoor photo exhibition in the area of the Castle of Mykonos Town with scenes from the life of the island during the post-war years of 1950s, at the dawn of the tourism miracle. Portraits of local people and snapshots from the middle of the 20th century will bring to life the empty shells, offering alternative perspectives to the site and creating a unique experience for visitors. At the same time at the patio area of the Archaeological Museum of Mykonos a smaller ensemble of photographs by Robert McCabe is presented, connecting the exhibition with its main core in the Castle area, thus joining the two cultural poles. The title of both exhibitions is “The Island That Seduced The World”. Robert McCabe’s trip in Greece in 1954 gave him the opportunity to experience the Greek islands before they became mass tourist destinations. His perfect-timing “good fortune” and love of photography have become precious assets in a journey that has covered so far Greece, France, Italy, New York City, New England, Havana, China, and Antarctica; an archive that grows constantly and has given visual substance to over 15 books and catalogs. As he says “When I first visited the islands in 1954, by and large there were no telephones, no television, no running water, few roads, no electricity, little concrete, no motor vehicles, no airports, no roll-on roll-off ferries, no tractors. Each island had to essentially live within its resources of arable land and water, supplemented by fishing and trade, and remittances from seamen and emigres. There was an equilibrium in the lives of the islands based on their available resources. Perhaps by scrutinizing life in the 1950s we can get unexpected insights into some aspects of the life that human beings lived in the 3rd millenium BC, and that is the goal of the images presented here”. Robert McCabe first started taking photographs when he was five years old, using a Kodak Baby Brownie. His first photographs of Europe were taken in 1954 during a trip to France, Italy, and Greece while an undergraduate at Princeton. He returned to Greece in 1955 and 1957 and travelled extensively in the Aegean, shooting with a Rolleiflex and Plus-X film. In 1957 he took a series of color photographs in the Greek Islands at the request of the National Geographic Society. His black and white photographs were first exhibited in the mid-1950s at the Firestone Library at Princeton and in a touring exhibition which ensued. Since then he has been travelling and photographing around the world presenting his photographic work in numerous exhibitions and publications. He lives and works in the United States, Greece and France. While McCabe’s black and white photos of Greece capture moments of an era passed, many of those elements – the olive trees, the ancient ruins, simple island architecture – are still with us today. Despite the continued existence of these core characteristics, as witness to the rapid development, industrialization, and tourism that boomed over time, McCabe expresses a sense of nostalgia for a lifestyle nearly forgotten.
Photo: Robert McCabe, Mykonos, © Robert McCabe, Courtesy the artist and Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades
Info: Castle of Mykonos town, Mykonos Island, duration: 1/8-30/9/2021 and Archeological Museum of Mykonos, Mykonos Island, duration: 1/8-31/12/2021, Days & Hours: Mon, Wed-Thu & Sun 9:00-16:00, Fri-Sat 8:30-20:00, http://odysseus.culture.gr
