The poetry of stone – Classical Greece through the lens of Robert McCabe – Photography exhibition in Budapest

On the initiative of the Embassy of Greece in Budapest and in collaboration with the internationally renowned photographer Robert McCabe, selected black and white photographs of the artist from the collection of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens are presented for the first time in Budapest.

The exhibition will be hosted at the historic Széchényi National Library, curated by Sofia Chiniadou Kampanis.

The distinguished Philhellenic American photographer first came to Greece in 1954, as a student at Princeton University, and since then he has continued to photograph the spirit and soul of the country, presenting his work in numerous exhibitions and publications around the world.

Robert McCabe’s photographic work, which records the history, culture and unparalleled natural beauty of Greece in a particularly attractive and dynamic way, also includes a significant number of photographs of archaeological monuments. Athens, the Acropolis, Sounio, Epidaurus, Mycenae, Mystras, Delphi, Meteora, Dodoni, Kamiros, Lindos, Knossos, as seen, decades ago, by the artistic and sensitive eye of a young American are presented to the Hungarian public in the exhibition at the Széchényi National Library.

The exhibition, which will be inaugurated on November 10 by the ambassador of Greece, Mr. Emmanuel Apostolakis, will last until the end of the year. Both the quality of Robert McCabe’s work and the impressive exhibition space secured by the Embassy, ​​in the iconic Buda Castle area in the city of Budapest, are expected to arouse great interest among the Hungarian public and become a major cultural event, contributing to the dynamic promotion of our country and its culture in Hungary.

The exhibition is held with the kind support of Aegean Airlines, EOT and Nico Lazaridi wines.

The photographer dedicates the images in this exhibition to the memory of his friend, Hungarian Philhellenic Edmond Solymosy, whose family hosted Patrick Leigh-Fermor in Hungary during his journey from Rotterdam to Istanbul.

“Greek antiquities have a surprisingly wide audience. They are of interest to archaeologists, architects, poets, lovers, historians, artists, painters, builders, scientists, scholars and, of course, photographers.

To most observers ruins are something static, the unchanging remains of an earlier civilization. But for a photographer—or painter—the ruins are constantly in motion as the sun moves across the sky, clouds change the diffusion of light over irregular surfaces, the sun’s path changes every day of the year, and all the surrounding vegetation blooms. or dries up. For the photographer, Greek antiquities and monuments present a unique challenge and different opportunities on each visit.

The ruins move every visitor in many and varied ways. They remind him of the rise and fall of civilizations, periods of spectacular success followed by invasions and disasters. They trace the history of a people through times of brilliance and prosperity to others of poverty and loss. Even in antiquity a kind of sanctity surrounded the oldest remains of the past. Hundreds, even thousands of years later, ancient sites or structures became objects of pilgrimage.
Today every archaeological site in Greece reminds us of its own unique history of Hellenism, its achievements, losses and rebirths.”

From the foreword of the book Robert McCabe CHRONOGRAPHY, for the 180th anniversary of the Athens Archaeological Society, 2017