1990s, Original Photo Poster, Dimitris Harisiadis, Greece, Sifnos, Greeks Resting

Dimitris Harisiadis (1911 –  1993) was the son of businessman Athanasios Harisiadis, who was involved in the processing and trade of tobacco products and had developed commercial activity as far as India and Cairo. His interest in photography was evident early on. He used his father’s camera and displayed the photographs in a makeshift darkroom on the roof of the family home. At the age of 16 he won second prize in a photography competition in Scotland. He began studying chemistry in Lausanne but had to interrupt his studies when the family’s financial situation worsened due to the negative economic course of his father’s stores in India. He settled, together with his family, in India and later, when his father’s financial situation improved, they returned as a family to Athens. After serving his military service he started working in his father’s plastics factory. In the Greco-Italian War in 1940, where he took part as a reserve officer, he was the official photographer of the Greek army. In his photographs from this war, which are about three hundred, the soldiers’ moments of rest dominate and there are no war scenes at all. He also photographed landscapes and combat exercises. After the start of the German attack, on the Greek-Bulgarian border, in April 1941, he was called to return to Athens as he was a linguist. During the Occupation, among other things, he captured the difficult living conditions of the Greeks and these photographs contributed to the acceleration of the provision of food aid to the country from abroad. After liberation he worked for a while as an interpreter as he knew English very well. He photographed the arrival and distribution of American aid in Greece, while there are also his photographs from the Liberation, Winston Churchill’s visit to Athens etc.. In the following years, by order of the Ministry of Reconstruction, he photographed the economic recovery of the country and the major projects.