Abstract

This essay was one of main texts in the book Greece Through Photographs: 160 Years of Visual Testimonies, ed. A. Moschovi and A. Tsirgialou, texts S. Asdrahas and J. Stathatos.

Bulding on 15 years of expertise in the history of Greek photography, Moschovi’s 12,000-word critical analysis focuses on the history of the representation of politics and the politics of representation itself. This approach bears close methodological affinities to the social history of art model, challenging earlier assumptions that were based on an insular reading of photographic history as an evolution of technologies and aesthetics, and proposing new, bold hypotheses around the status of the photographic document.

This essay was selected together with two more essays authored by Moschovi (see “Pragmatikotites kai Pithanotites: To Authentiko Plasto? Anaparastaseis tou Pragmatikou se Fotografikes Istories”, 2009 and "To Varos tis Autognosias", 2007) to be included in this edited volume that features 31 seminal texts on historical and contemporary Greek photography. This anthology is the first publication to bring together contemporary scholarly texts on the history, theory, criticism, and practice of Greek photography by a range of established photography academics, historians, critics, and curators.