The Photographic Archive of the Benaki Museum was established in 1973 with the aim of collecting, preserving and documenting photographs of Early Christian, Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and architecture.
Since then the original interest of the Archive was gradually extended to cover the image and the culture of Greece as well as the history and present time society.
The Archive now includes photographs depicting traditional trades, customs and agricultural practises, the Axis Occupation and the post-war period, social and cultural events, antiquities, Byzantine churches, neo-Classical and traditional architecture and aspects of urban settlements.
The Photographic Archive comprises of 200.000 negatives and 3000 original photographs dating to the 19th and 20th centuries. It has been formed through purchases and donations of important collections including those of the professional photographers Nelly's, Voula Papaioannou, Pericles Papachatzidakis, Dimitris Harissiadis, Nicolaos Rizos, Nicolaos Tombazis, as well as the amateurs Rena Andreadi, Stephanos Malikopoulos, Loukas Benakis, and Ioannis Charamis. The Archive also includes the photographic collections of the byzantinist Laskarina Boura, the architect Maria Zagorisiou, and the writer Elli Papademetriou.
The Photographic Archive is open to all researchers. For their benefit a card catalogue of 50.000 prints has been compliled on the basis of subject matter and location. Moreover plans have been made to catalogue the entire collection in electronic format in the near future.
Apart from the collection and preservation of the material, the Photographic Archive has also been involved in:
- the organisation of photographic exhibitions in Greece and abroad;
- the publication of books about photographs and photography;
- the planning of seminars, colloquia and other events devoted to the subject of photography.
Among its more recent activities, the Photographic Archive has been involved in research into the history of photography in Greece and the work of early Greek photographers. It has also commissioned contemporary photographers to record themes of Greek interest.
© 2000, the Benaki Museum
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Since 1999 the Photographic Archive has been housed in new premices at Plateia Philikes Hetaireias 17 in Kolonaki, donated by Mary Carolou and Penelope Vlangali. This new space has been equipped by a temperature-controlled storage room, space for the collections, a reading room, a darkroom, as well as a unit for preventive conservation and restoration.