by Stella Tsolakidou -
Oct 11, 2011
One
of the most important photographers of Modern Greek history, Costas Balafas
passed away at the age of 91 in Athens.
The well known photographer of World War II and Greek Resistance had shot
pictures of some the cruelest aspects of war in Greece.
Costas Balafas was
born into a poor agricultural family in 1920 in a village in the mountains of
the Arta region. He was impressed by photography at the early age of 11 during
a relatives’ visit in Athens and then again in
the town of Ioannina
where he worked and studied.
Self-taught, he
began to take photographs on a regular basis in 1940 especially when he went to
the mountains of Epirus to join the partisans in order to record their struggle
and, afterwards, the upheaval of the civil war.
His talent,
courage and determination brought him to the front line of the Greek-Italian
war, where he continued shooting photos despite the imminent danger of his
life.
Costas Balafas was
one of the founding members of the Hellenic Photographic Society and had
traveled throughout Greece
taking photographs.
