“The spotlights on Mykonos 1959 – 1979” – A photo exhibition by Christos Poulidis

The well-known photojournalist Christos Poulidis “returns” to his favourite island – Mykonos – after almost 60 years. This thematic exhibition, organized by the Municipal Art Gallery of Mykonos in collaboration with Cosmosarte, is the first of a series of actions that relate to his 20 years of continuous professional presence on the island.

The exhibition “The spotlights on Mykonos 1959 – 1979 ” presents original photographs from the period 1959-1979, featuring historical and emblematic personalities of the past, Greek and foreign artists, people of culture, Greek and international political and business elite, who visited the area, enjoyed its hospitality and gave the island its unique and unique global glamour and fame.

Princess Soraya, Grace Kelly, Constantinos Karamanlis, Aristotelis Onasis and Alexandros Onasis, the Niarchos and the Goulandris families, Maurice Bejart, Melina Merkouri, Jules Dassin, Dimitrios Horn, Stavros Xarhakos and countless others. The exhibition is accompanied by photographs of unique beauty and special interest, with views of an “other Mykonos”, so different and yet so similar to today’s Mykonos.

A few words about Christos Poulidis

Christos Poulidis was born in Athens. His father was the first Greek photojournalist Petros Poulidis. After the war, Christos Poulidis like the rest of his brothers dedicated in photojournalism documented the daily life and Greece. In particular, Christos, with his office in Kolonaki in Athens as his base, was the main collaborator of all news agencies, newspapers and magazines both in Greece and abroad at the time.

In the late 1950s he found himself in the island of Mykonos. His instinct urged him to “see” early on the future developments of the island and tourism in general and he opened a branch on the island where he worked for a full 20 years. From 1959 to 1979, as the only professional photographer-photojournalist on the island, he consistently and continuously records all aspects of his life. The island with its incomparable beauty, the hospitable, hard-working and open-minded people, the daily activities.

He captures the constant and rapid changes and constantly sends reports to the Greek and International Press about Mykonos and the famous visitors who arrive more and more often, creating a myth. One can suggest that Christos Poulidis, with his consistency, professionalism, insightful eye and talent, can claim – to the extent that he deserves – a part of the current glory and recognition of today’s Mykonos as the flagship of Greek tourism and as one of the most recognizable destinations at the global level.

In the 1980s and 1990s he concentrated on editing his father’s Photographic Archive. The Historical Photographic Archive of Peter Poulidis in which almost the entire Greek History of the 20th Century has been captured, passed with the initiatives into the hands of the E.R.T. in 1990.