Paros

In the middle of the sapphire-blue Aegean Sea lies Paros, a tiny island with an ancient history. Part of the Cycladic islands, Paros has been famous for its sparkling white marble statuary for thousands of years. Even into the early 21^st century and despite the growing influx of tourists visiting the island’s pristine beaches and charming whitewashed villages, the lifestyle on Paros remained proudly traditional. Renowned portrait photographer Platon, who traces his family roots there, has inhabited the island on and off since he was a young boy. Beginning 40 years ago, he began to capture the cadences and textures of its unique identity, which is defined by its relationship to the ocean and the sun. The black and white images in Paros show the rhythm of life—young girls in elaborate traditional dress preparing for a village festival, a weary farmer crouched in front of his grape vines to escape the beating sun, a donkey making its way up a stony path, and the proprietor of the village coffee shop taking a break, his table cluttered with a full ashtray, Greek coffee, and a glass of ouzo. The photographs reveal a place that was slow to adopt the technology and frenetic pace of life that had already overtaken much of the planet by the 1980s and 90s. An old man photographed in his kitchen sits in front of a package of AA batteries hanging on the wall behind him—the man had no idea what the batteries were for, but he assumed that they were decorative since the package had a hole in it. Paros is the most personal photography book to date by Platon, a poetic and loving tribute to a bygone world.