May-September 2008

An interesting exhibit of photography, from a technical point of view and as a documentary perspective, about Mount Athos from the well-known Byzantinologist, member of the Academy of Athens, Panagiotis Vokotopoulos, husband of the ever remembered archeologist Ioulia Vokotopoulou, was opened on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 in the confines of the Mount Athos Center at the Nedelkos Mansion.

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The Exhibition 

For five months in the Nedelkos Mansion, Panagiotis Vokotopoulos presented a part of his rich photographic archive of Mount Athos from the period of 1956 -2001.
His photographs cover the exceptionally interesting period of the life of the Monastic State, an era that no longer exists.  The work shows the critical period of problems resulting from lack of men, the lack of funds and general interest of the state for the survival of the unique architectural heritage.  Simultaneously, it shows the spiritual life, the continuous observation of the worshipping and liturgical life in the everyday life of the monks, where with little means, with hard individual labor, they struggle to maintain upright gigantic buildings, Katholika, Sketes and chapels, which ruin, time and circumstances threatened with decay and complete destruction. 
With a penetrating look and with an approach both full of respect and simultaneously realistic, the unique document is recorded by one adept in photographic technique, in which one discerns the decay, the passage of time, the effort of the monks to save, in every possible way the architectural works from disaster with the usage of whatever materials they had at their disposal, where the colorful remains of time meet the intense reds, blues and yellows in an impressive combination that no longer exists.

The exhibit focuses on the preservation of a moment of the more than one thousand year history of life on Mount Athos, an environment which still has not changed and the needs of the particular era and the great works of conservation and restoration, which are comprised here in thirty years on Mount Athos.

Panagiotis Vokotopoulos 

A multifarious personality with a wealth of works in archaeology, architecture, Byzantine iconography and manuscripts, an intellectual omnivore, of our time, a professor of the universities both of Thessaloniki and Athens, with a huge bibliography both in Greek and foreign language, Mr. Vokotopoulos collaborated with the Mount Athos Center in the publication of the iconographic programs of the Holy Monasteries of Mount Athos by the Academy of Athens as well as in the publication of the impressions of the Russian traveler and pilgrim Vasili Barski (1741-1747), from the Archives of the Academician Pavlos Milonas, a joint project with the Benaki Museum.
He also mentions in his texts which concern his collection of pictures:

“As opposed to other photographers, I took pictures mainly of buildings because of my professional interests. The exhibit and the catalogue contain views and details of the buildings which burned, such as the large section of the Hilandarion Monastery, the eastern area of Karakallou Monastery, the northern stretch of Vatopaidi and the amazing reception hall of Rusikon monastery, and monasteries which have changed in appearance with alterations…
…During my first visit I took only black and white photographs with an old Rolleiflex.  From 1961 and after I used a 24X36 camera, first a Retina Reflex and later different types of Minolta in order to photograph primarily the buildings and surroundings with Kodachrome film.  I gladly accepted the proposal of the Mount Athos Center to display in its halls a part of my color transparency collection of Mount Athos, preferring those photographs from the 1960s and 70s, which display the Athonite landscape, before it was changed by the opening of roads, and the existing environment as it was before the renovation and alteration of many groups of buildings…
…The change, which anyone can acknowledge, in the last fifty years is great.  In 1956 there did not exist any road for cars and transportation took place on foot or by boat.  With the exception of some interventions, for example, at the headquarters of the Sacred Community and in the monasteries of Dionysios and Grigorios the basic environment had not changed since the beginning of the 20th century.  Electrical power was unknown.  The transport ships were small wooden “motor boats”.  I arrived in time to see the dining room of Rosikon and the single napkin that stretched the entire length of the table, like the type we see in the Byzantine frescoes of the Last Supper and which has now been replaced by individual paper napkins.  The toilet fixtures of common use were those that Orlandos describes and outlines in “Monastery Architecture”.  The question is if any have remained as an example.  You generally had the feeling that time had stopped and you were living in a time gone by.

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The Holy Greetings

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew saluted the presentation of this work and emphasized among other things:
“This exhibit of an interesting collection of photographs, tokens of the past fifty years, is considered exceptionally important, because it records the riches of the recent history of the Holy Athonite peninsula.  The unparalleled natural beauty, the outstanding architectural works, the sacred treasures, the ascetic way of life and countenances of the monastics and the touching environment are illustrated and printed in a moving way.”
The Sacred Community, accordingly, in its message, stated:
“Congratulations are deserved for the adept Academician and pilgrim of Mount Athos, Mr. Panagiotis Vokotopoulos, who with his photographic lens and captures, introduces us to the generation prior to our own, to the natural environment as it was then, to the every day life of that age.  A time when the effort of building and reconstruction had not yet begun at Mount Athos by the administrative bodies of the Holy Community and the Center of Preservation of Mount Athos Heritage, and the water transport to the Holy Mountain, with the absence of motorized boats, was rare and difficult and also when travel to the Holy Monasteries within the peninsula was possible only for a few hikers, because of the great distance and the lack of forest paths, which would be opened later discerningly for fire safety for the Monasteries and protection of the natural environment.