Hello dreed
You are going to get an answer after all!
I've now received an email from the Thessaloniki Museum of
Photography, where I had sent a query about the monastery exhibition
at Great Meteoron. My message included the K. M. initials and the
details you had given about the black and white photographs. They have
very kindly told me that "Kostas Balafas is the name you are looking
for." If you remember, I had mentioned the possibility of MP or 'mu,
pi' in Greek becoming a B in English in my earlier comment (below).
There is some irony in this as I had seen a photograph on the museum
website illustrating Balafas' current exhibition and rejected it! It's
a color photograph of construction work, not at all 'folklife' nor
black and white, but more about that later. First I should
demonstrate that this *is* the person you have been seeking. The
photographs themselves, including one online version of his signature,
will be more informative than any words. Though I don't often start an
answer with a list of links, in this case I think it makes sense.
First the one photograph I've found showing his squiggly and confusing
signature:
http://www.fkth.gr/fotografers/balafas/balafas_6.htm
Then, a bearded man
http://www.fkth.gr/fotografers/balafas/balafas_1.htm
Woman and children
http://www.fkth.gr/fotografers/balafas/balafas_2.htm
Children with bowls
http://www.fkth.gr/fotografers/balafas/balafas_3.htm
Woman with two boys
http://www.fkth.gr/fotografers/balafas/balafas_4.htm
Woman on hillside (with pig?)
http://www.fkth.gr/fotografers/balafas/balafas_5.htm
Mountain scene with woman and donkey
(source code for this page says: "1987 Vikos photo by Kostas Balafas
and Kathimerini's "Seven Days",September 15, 1996" - I think
Kathimerini is a newspaper)
http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/travel/ksoklissi.html
Taken during the forties?
http://www.fotoartmagazine.com/01_ELLHNIKO/FVTOGRAFIA/ISTORIA/MIKRES%20BIOGRAFIES/ELLHNES%20FOTOGRAFOI/MPALAFAS%20%20KOSTAS.htm
Six photos to click on for individual enlargements
http://www.leica-academy.gr/portfolios/balafas.htm
Another page of thumbnail size photos
http://www.faos.gr/fotogr/mpalafas/
Pictures from an exhibition
http://www.photosynkyria.gr/2002/exhibitions_gr/11.htm
BALAFAS: LIFE
Balafas was born to a farming family at Kypseli in Epirus (or Ipiros),
and started his life as a photographer at the age of twenty. Much of
his work is concerned with Greek rural life and social questions, and
he is known for photographing the difficult times of the Resistance
and the turbulent post-war period. He took to the mountains in 1942,
belonging to the 85th. regiment of ELAS, part of the Resistance
movement. He was a friend of the photographer Takis Tloupas. In 1989
he won the Kostas Makedonas Prize and was awarded an honorary pension
in 1994 by the Greek Ministry of Culture.
There's not much information on the Web about what he did from 1950 on
(or at least not in English), but there is currently an exhibition at
the Thessaloniki Museum with his photographic record of the
construction of the Kremasta dam. The dam opened in 1966.
"The Thessaloniki Museum of Photography is preparing an exhibition of
works by Kostas Balafas, The Diversion of the Acheloos, to be held in
the months of December 2002 and January 2003."
Exhibition: KOSTAS BALAFAS: THE DIVERSION OF THE ACHELOOS
http://www.thmphoto.gr/article/archive/54/
BALAFAS: WORK
His style is discussed in this extract:
"Taking an entirely different line, Meletzis and Balafas laid down the
essential elements of the style which dominated Greek photography for
the next twenty years. A more lyrical version of the so-called
"humanist" photography movement developed in France, it concentrated
on the nostalgic and sublime aspects of Greek landscape, devoting
itself above all to the depiction of traditional and by then largely
marginalised social groups. This approach, essentially conservative
both aesthetically and politically, somewhat paradoxically remained
characteristic of photographers on the left of the political
spectrum."
Image and Icon: The New Greek Photography, 1975-1995
http://www.culture.gr/2/22/227/22701/e2270105.html
Another paragraph about him and two colleagues:
"Voula Papaioannou, Dimitris Harissiadis and Kostas Balafas are three
photographers whose work is characterized by its unique perspective on
the postwar years that were so difficult for Greece.
This exhibition brings together sixty-six photographs that record
crucial encounters between these photographers and their fellow men,
as they experienced the disasters of war, endured hunger and poverty,
fought to rebuild their homes and return to an everyday existence.
Each face is drawn with its own individual life story through the lens
of each photographer’s personal vision of life and humanity. The
photographs describe, recount and illustrate everyday occurrences or
exceptional events, full of the conviction that photography is a
medium capable of capturing the essence of human nature and
illuminating ideas and emotions such as pain, tenderness, fortitude
and dignity. The photographs in the exhibition belong to the
collection of the Photographic Archive of the Benaki Museum."
This comes from a record of an exhibition at the Benaki Museum (
Photographic Archive, Photography Center of Athens):
http://www.benaki.gr/archives/en/ex_photo.asp
Another snippet:
"Later, the photographers of the post-war decades (Spyros Meletzis,
Kostas Balaphas, Voula Papaioannou, Dimitris Charisiadis) turned
mainly to the countryside and agricultural life, following the trend
of return to the purity of Nature that held sway after the mayhem of
World War II."
Benaki Museum Archive comment
http://www.photocircle.gr/Ekdoseis/ekdoseis%20arthra/eng_ekdoseis_athina.htm
Announcement of the current exhibition in Thessaloniki:
"The photographs in the exhibition provide a visual record of the
construction work on the Kremasta dam, which will divert the River
Acheloos. They can be seen both as documents of great historical
interest, showing the various phases in the construction of what is -
by Greek standards - a colossal project, and also as a more poetic
record of the massive natural and social turmoil involved, in which
the artist brings a keen human awareness to his descriptions of the
ravaged landscape, the evacuation of the local villages, the upheaval
to which the whole social and cultural fabric of the region is
subjected. " (same link as above)
A political commentator has this to say:
"In a collection of otherwise rather banal images documenting
resistance and civil war in the mountains of Epirus between 1940 and
1949, the Greek photographer Kostas Balafas included two fascinating
photographs, taken within minutes of each other and printed on facing
pages. The first shows two communist military commanders riding black
horses through the streets of a country town; the other shows the
faces of a small crowd watching the guerillas ride past. The caption
under the second image reads "The people watch them admiringly", but
even the most superficial examination shows that if any emotion is
gripping this remarkably reserved crowd, it is stark, simple fear.
Balafas' sympathies (he was part of the parading detachment) appear,
in this case, to have completely addled his critical faculties,
letting through an image which cooler judgement might have
suppressed."
POLITICS IN PHOTOGRAPHY, by John Stathatos
http://www.stathatos.net/politicsinphotography.htm
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
"One of the Greatest Greek alive Photographers. Born in 1920, in an
Ipiros village from farmer parents. He is occupied with Photography
since 1940. He took part in the Greek Resistance and took many photos
from the fight of the people against fascism. His experiences of that
difficult days have influenced his style. A great part of his work
inserted in 16mm movie. This film contains folklore themes, which get
lost in our days."
Photography Center of Thessaloniki: Balafas
http://www.fkth.gr/balafas.htm
"Kostas Balafas
Né à Kypseli en 1920. Il est l'auteur de reportages sur la résistance
grecque entre 1941 et 1945. Son œuvre est imprégnée des problématiques
sociales. Elle est ancrée dans les provinces grecques, celle
d'Épidaure particulièrement."
Les 21 photographes
http://www.ville-montpellier.fr/vmtv/fr/culturelle/0201/expo-photo-grec/artistes.htm#bala
1994 "Ministry of Culture offers honorary pensions to veteran
photographers Spyros Meletzis, Kostas Balafas and Dimitris Tloupas"
Hellenic Ministry of Culture
http://www.culture.gr/2/22/227/22701/e2270110.html
Some of the previous links will have shown you his name in capital
letters, but here it is in lower case, except for the initials.
http://www.fkth.gr/fkth/dimiourgoi_l_p.htm
About his friend Takis Tloupas, author calls Balafas a "noble figure"
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgreeceellasfrm15.showMessage?topicID=22.topic
The Resistance and Balafas
http://www1.fhw.gr/chronos/14/en/1940_1945/resistance/07_c.html
Links to small Balafas photographs
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:www1.fhw.gr+balaphas
FINDING MORE
You asked about sources for his work. I'm not sure if you were
interested in buying his work or seeing more examples, but apart from
the online images I've already pointed out, there aren't many leads.
The Benaki collection of wartime photographs is associated with this
catalog/book :
"Faces in the Shadow. Costas Balafas - Voula Papaioannou - Dimitris
Harissiadis"
The Benaki Museum gives these details:
"Faces in the Shadow. Costas Balafas - Voula Papaioannou - Dimitris
Harissiadis", by C. Antoniadis
Photography Center of Athens , Benaki Museum (Photographic Archive),
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
Edition: 2002
ISBN: 960-8452-89-9
(bilingual: greek/english)
Benaki Museum publications
http://www.benaki.gr/publications/en/new/
Their address is:
BENAKI MUSEUM
1, Koumbari str & Vas. Sofias av.
106 74 Athens
tel +30-210 367 1000
fax +30-210 367 1063
benaki@benaki.gr
English contact page
http://www.benaki.gr/info/en/
"Faces in the Shadow" is also sold at the Thessaloniki Museum. These
are their contact details:
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
P. O. Box 10532, 54110 Thessaloniki, Greece
Tel: +30 23 10 566 716
Fax: +30 23 10 566 717
E-mail
Secretary: mariako@thmphoto.gr
Curator: hercules@thmphoto.gr
Lab: lab@thmphoto.gr
Director: (Aris Georgiou) info@thmphoto.gr
http://www.thmphoto.gr/contact_en/
As the Thessaloniki Museum have a Balafas exhibition on right now,
they may be the best people to ask about contacting the photographer
himself, his family or agent, if you are in search of more of his
work. They have already been helpful, their website has a
fully-fledged English version and it works well (unlike the Benaki
site which has been troublesome today).
I also found a reference to an article:
"Camera International: Voyage en Grece. Paris: Camera International,
1989.
Issue No. 20 of Camera International magazine. Includes work by
Periklis Alkidis, Kostis Antoniadis, Yiagos Athanassopoulos, Manolis
Baboussis, Kostas Balafas, Nikos Daniilidis, John Demos, Yiorgos
Depollas, Nikos Economopoulos, Stelios Efstathopoulos, Katerina
Kaloudi, Yiorgos Katsangelos, Eleni Maligoura, Constantine Manos,
Nikos Panayotopoulos, Voula Papaioannou, Elly Seraidari, Takis
Tloupas, Panos Vardopoulos & Tassos Vretos.
Paperback, 89 pp, numerous colour and b&w plates."
GREEK PHOTOGRAPHY: A Foreign Language Bibliography
http://www.culture.gr/2/22/227/22701/e2270112.html
I'm afraid I haven't found a library with this journal though I dare
say it is out there somewhere and a few more hours searching might
turn it up.
There's a book in the Library of Congress with a preface by Balafas,
but probably none of his own work:
Author: Vergas, K¯ostas, 1958-
Title: Hellada : symph¯onia t¯es phys¯es /
ph¯otographies, K¯ostas Vergas ; prologos, K¯ostas
Balaphas ;
keimeno, Kyros Kokkas = Hellas : a symphony of
nature /
photographs, Kostas Vergas ; preface, Costas Balafas
; text,
Kiros Kokkas.
Published: Athens : Ekdoseis Vergas, c1999.
Description: 271 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 28 x 30 cm.
LC Call No.: TR721.V47 1999
ISBN: 9609071813
Notes: Text and captions in Greek and English.
Subjects: Nature photography -- Greece.
Vergas, K¯ostas, 1958-
Control No.: 11971602
I hope this helps and you have enough here to satisfy your interest.
Please feel free to get back to me, using the 'request clarification'
option, if I can assist you any further with this.
Thank-you for a very interesting question. I enjoyed researching it
and am glad we found your photographer in the end.
Regards - Leli
search notes:
Originally I tried a variety of possible transliterations and searched
Greek photography sites.
After getting the museum's email, I used "Kostas Balafas" "Costas
Balafas" Balaphas and "K Balafas".
When I found his name in Greek letters, I used that for a Google image
search.
I did also run a normal Google search using the Greek characters, but
I'm afraid the results would only help someone with more knowledge of
Greek than I have:
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=+%CE%9A%CF%8E%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B1%CF%82+%CE%9C%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%AC%CF%86%CE%B1%CF%82&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta= |
