Mykonos ― Portrait of a Vanished Era

Experience the unspoiled beauty and traditional culture of this legendary Greek island, as photographed by a visitor in the 1950s
 
There are hundreds of Greek islands. Why did Mykonos become, in just a few decades, one of the leading vacation destinations in the world, hosting up to 140,000 visitors on a typical summer day? Part of the answer can be found in these remarkable images, which show the unspoiled beauty—of both the place and its people—that initially attracted artists, writers, and celebrities.Among those early pilgrims was the photographer Robert McCabe. When he first came to Mykonos in the summer of 1955, he was one of perhaps fifteen visitors on the island. There were no cars, no motorbikes, no running water, and little electricity. There was, however, a traditional island culture—with its own dances, songs, poetry, cuisine, textiles, architecture, even language—developed over thousands of years and perfectly adapted to its austere yet beautiful natural setting. It was this culture, and this scenery, that McCabe set himself to document, on that initial journey and on a return visit for the National Geographic Magazine in 1957.
 
In this book, McCabe’s images re-create a daylong visit to the island as it was: We disembark from a ship in the Old Harbor and are rowed to shore in a small tender. We wander the picturesque streets of Chora (the main town), pausing for breathtaking views of the harbor and watching the inhabitants at their daily tasks: doing their laundry by the shore, delivering well water in a cart, shopping at the grocer’s. We venture to Saint Panteleimon Monastery in Marathi, to witness the festivities—with dancing and feasting—that attend the saint’s name day and a baptism. We take a caique (a traditional wooden boat) to the neighboring island of Delos— the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo, and the geographic and historical hub of the Cyclades—to see the ruins of its classical heyday. And, at day’s end, back aboard ship, we watch the whitewashed walls of Chora slip away into the distance—into memory.
 
Reproduced as full-page tritones of surpassing quality, and accompanied by a sensitive introduction and detailed captions, McCabe’s photographs do indeed offer a portrait of a vanished era. This book will fascinate modern-day visitors to Mykonos, as well as those who trace their roots to the Greek islands.

Robert McCabe was born in Chicago in 1934. He started taking photographs in 1939 with a Kodak Brownie given to him by his father, who published a tabloid newspaper in New York. In 1957, he photographed widely in the Cyclades at the request of the National Geographic Magazine, and he continues to photograph in Greece today. His fifteen published books encompass Greece, Cuba, China, Antarctica, and Central Park, and his forthcoming projects include The Last Monk of the Strofades, The Greeks and Their Seas, Santorini Before the Earthquake, Kasos 1965, A Portrait of Patmos, and The Waterways of France. He believes that photography is the perfect medium for what he calls poetic realism.