Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis star

This recent press photo shows Roger Federer at the height of his career. Brown eyes from Basel.

Baku, is it real?

Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, remains mythical in my imagination. Can this building be real? A Stalinist version of a Central Asian palace in the midst of nowhere. A grey colosseum of the 20th century.

Lew Ayres, a modest Hollywood man

Does anyone remember Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996)? Many postcards of this fine actor survive and bring back his best years in the movies from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. He was co-starring to Greta Garbo in "The Kiss" (1929) and his major hit role was n Lewis Milestone's WWI masterpiece "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930). He starred with many glamorous leading ladies of the 1930s : Constance Bennett, Janet Gaynor, Alice Faye, Dorothy Lamour... Even in "B" movies he was all about heart and soul.

Bye bye old Berlin! Tempelhof Airport

Last days for the Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, the Mother Of Al Airports, as Sir Norman Foster once said. Built originally in the 1920s, it was redesigned in a Nazi style in the 1930s and was a civil airport till 1975. It opened again for civilians after the unification of Germany but it will close again as the new airport of Berlin will be given to use by 2011. It stll conveys a very special atmosphere enhanced by the use of shellstone.

Greek boy with bicycle in Chios island, 1922

A studio photograph by A. Bachas on the Aegean island of Chios. This was a standrad pose for the bourgeois class anytime before World War II. Chios had a prosperous middle class that in the 19th century was the basis for the Greek community of London.

Boris Akunin, a Russian master

He has the gift. Boris Akunin, the internationally acclaimed Russian writer, has a classic style with twists of irony and humour. His novels recall the ambience of Old Europe and his descriptions have been compared to Tolstoi.

Athens in the Modern 1930s

This apartment building on 18, Omirou Street in central Athens reveals the quality of urban architecture in the 1930s. Ultra modern apartments were being built in order to provide the new facilities to the upper middle class. Many of these buildings survive today. Photo taken in January 2006.

Faulkner and his typewritter

Photos of people working on their typewritters can be a great collection. Now that their image is so much pushed back in time although till the 1980s they were still in home use. Many people have a sentimental attachement to their old typewritters and like to keep them as items of personal history. William Faulkner and many other authors posed while in work.

Torsten Frings and baby leopard

German footballer Torsten Frings poses in an Italian Renaissance fashion holding a baby leopard. He also reminds a 1920s Hollywood star when wild animals were taken in as pets. Torsten will turn 31 in November this year (2007) and this photo reveals a very tender ascpect of his personality.

Berlin Doors

In the area around Kurfurstendam (in the commercial centre of former West Berlin), one can still locate amazingly beautiful doorways in refurbished buildings. Photos taken in October 2006.

Primary School at Kyparissi, Peloponnese

An oak tree shadows the view of the Primary School at Kiparissi, a lovely village in eastern Peloponnese, in the region of Lakonia. These type of schools were being built in Southern Greece in the early 20th c. in the fashion of the simplified neoclassical style. Photo taken in July 2007.

Highgate Cemetery, London

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Joining a guided tour in Highgate Cemetery, London is a rewarding experience if you are interested in Victorian attitudes towards death. This vast necropolis with its own inner landscape and mystic atmosphere is being decoded in a haunting way by one of the keepers of the place who guides the visitors around. Stories that reveal the social fibre of 19thc. London, stories that tell about pop idols, vanity, fear and love, pop up to give sense to this otherwise macabre place. Photo taken in March 2006.

Nikola Tesla, the genius recluse

Serbo-Croatian genius Nikola Tesla looks quite narcissistic in this 1896 photo. But he was a man closed to his own world. So big a genius, Tesla has fans till today - we owe him much of the modern day technology and his foresight into the future possibility of wireless communication had science fiction nuances 100 years ago. Tesla comes from the great tradition of Austro-Hungarian Empire and he must have been a polyglot since he studied in German and then worked in the USA. His emblematic figure is a tragic contarst between a man with amazing mental capacity and a man incapable of mature emotional relationships. It was said he had pigeons as his sole company...

TIME Magazine Culture

This 1954 art cover of TIME magazine features Ernest Hemingway. This iconic design symbolizes the cult of TIME covers since the early 20th century. Many are sold as art prints on Amazon.com and many originals on ebay.com.

Chicago, The Fisher Building

In Chicago one marvels at the multi-storied bulidings erected a century ago. Technology was at its height as well as design. Fisher Building was bulit in 1896 and an addition was added in 1907. On its facades are carved mythical creatures reminiscent of the Medieval Cathedrals. It was designated as a Chicago landmark in 1978. Photo taken in February 2002.

Art Deco Galore in Miami South Beach

Miami South Beach as one of the world's capital of Art Deco architecture reveals endless views of 1930s facades. The pastel colours in flamingo pink, turquoise and caramel yellow give away an air of surprising optimism. Photo taken in Decmber 2002.

Tatoi, former Royal Residence in Athens

These sweeping stairs made of stone were leading from the Palace to the swimming pool and from there to the tennis lawns in the Former Royal Residence in Tatoi, close to Athens. Now, this huge Royal Park is scattered with 40 buildings built in the period 1870 - 1940 in thousands acres of forest land and wild scenery. Photo taken in November 2003.

Chekhov style mansion in Western Turkey

Bulit among cherry orchards, or cherry trees planted around it, this beautiful wooden house is located in Karagac, a small town in North Western Turkey close to the border with Greece. Karagac used to be an important centre in the early 20th c. in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. This house is found next to the former grandiose building of the Railway Station that now houses the University of Thrace. Photo taken in May 2006.

Cornell Woolrich, pulp fiction Master

A great old fashioned mystery novel is "Fright" by pulp fiction master Cornell Woolrich. Published in 1950 for the first time and then forgotten, "Fright" is being now reissued in the famed series Hard Case Crime. The story is set in the USA in the period 1915-16. Great period details, if anyone is interested.

New building and Russian Church in Athens

This building is a new addition on the elegant Amalias Avenue in central Athens facing the National Gardens. Its warm colours are a pleasant juxtaposition to the earth coloured Medieval Byzantine Church in the back that was named as the Russian Church of Athens in the 19th c. when Olga, sister of the Tzar, was the new Queen of Greece. Photo taken in August 2007.

Vintage Canada

Commonwealth stamps before 1960 were true gems. Canada issued some beautiful series that can be easily traced on old covers and postcards. The same kind of stamps were issued by now EU countries Malta and Cyprus but also from Pacific islands or African countries under British rule.

Neoclassical villa in Piraeus

In the area of Neo Faliro, part of Piraeus, Greece, there are still left many old world villas evocative of the romantic character that this suburb had till the 1920s. This villa was probably built in the 1890s or early 1900s in the typical neoclassical style that Athenians loved then. The palm trees make part of the architectural design and are certainly older than a century now. Photo taken in 2005.

Miami South Beach, late 1940s ambience

Royal Palm Hotel in South Beach, Miami, is a typical Art Deco building, one of the many that can be seen in that part of the world. The lobby of the hotel, though, is unique in capturing this late 1940s - early 1950s ambience that brings in mind magazines like "Photoplay" or 'Life". Photo taken in December 2002.

Helsinki Art Nouveau Charm

Jugendstil in Finland is wonderfully exemplified in this Helsinki building. Part of the New Art Movement in Europe, this facade that embodies influences from a late Art Nouveau and an early Art Deco is very similar to buildings of the same period in Central Europe. Photo taken in July 2003.

Turkish flags in Istanbul

There is a special old fashioned tone in flag draped buildings like this one on Istiklal Cadesi in central Istanbul. A huge Turkish flag covers the facade of an early 20th c. building in the hub of pre-war bourgeois Istanbul. An evocative view in one of the greatest walks in the Turkish metropolis. Photo taken in April 2006.

Whatever happened to Dorothy Malone?

She was never the queen although she strived hard. She got an Oscar for supporting actress for "Written in the Wind" in the 1950s but then again she climbed into stardom in the mid-1960s in the TV series "Peyton Place". Dorothy Malone was sultry and distinguished at the same time, a big star for many years that gradually dimmed. She is now 82 years old. A favourite always.

Fortnum & Mason, London

Before entering Fortune & Mason on Picadilly Road in London, to buy tea and delicasies, have a look at the lamposts jutting out left and right of the entrance. Gracefully crafted, these are part of the great urban tradition of London. When I look at them, I want read Jane Austen again, although I do not know when they were made and placed there. Photo taken in March 2006.

Chapel on Kythera Island, Southern Greece

Bathed in the sweet colour of late afternoon sun, this small church seems to grow amidst fields of wheat. It looks like a animal turning to look at the lens. It is located on the island of Kythera, just off the south eastern tip of the Peloponnese, Southern Greece. A German friend told me that this scene reminded him of Ireland. Photo taken in September 2006.

Flirting in bathing suits, 1909

This postcard mailed in the USA in the year 1909, the heyday of postcard collecting, reveals a scene of modern flirt in the early 20thc. It is much more modern than most of us would have thought about what was actually happening in 1909. It tells us about the relativity of social conventions and also about the need of each new generation to make its own statement of self consciousness. Also, it is a massively produced postcard of high aesthetic value. Found on e-bay, not bought.

Dutch echo of a distant past

Hoorn, this lovely town in North Western Netherlands, can boast of a lively atmosphere and a nice promenade leading from a 16th c. square to an Art Nouveau quay. But this facade, in red and yellow brick, so evocative of the 1890s and 1900s, recalls the Imperial past of the Dutch. Exotic names on the facade of the building bring adventurous travels in mind at the very moment when one is at the heart of a rather provincial, yet charming, shopping parade. Photo taken in August 2007.

Colourful domes in Budapest

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Hungarians just love ornamentation. Their capital is marked by domes, turrets, cartouches, flowery Art Nouveau or classical Historicism, neo-Baroque cupids and Art Deco figures. They are all there to reveal a past of exuberance. I love these two cupolas just next to the classy Central Cafe in an area rich in atmosphere and urban texture. In Budapest there is a tragic and romantic feel in the air and this ornamental architecture brings it closer to reality than fantasy. Photo taken in September 2007.

Amazon in Clay, Athens

This 19th century statue of an Amazon adorns the small garden of the Numismatic Museum in Athens. The Museum is housed in the former private mansion of Heinrich Schliemann, the man who excavated Troy in Asia Minor in the 1870s. This statue, together with a dozen more, was ordered in Vienna in an artistic workshop that produced ornamentation for public and private architecture in the late period of Historicism. A touch of romantic narrative in modern Athens. Photo taken in August 2007.

Neo-Victorian Far East

The art of Alex Gross is so inspiring and original that one forgets the Victorian original setting behind many of his artwork. He loves Japan and one can easily testify this sublime love affair in his many manga-ese poster-feel works. Yet, he is a Westerner. He visits Japan through his own cultural filters and there's nothing wrong with that. He blends Tokyo and New York, family portraits and commonly recognised institutions, such as Religion, in a new visual landscape full of irony, wit, colour and eroticism.

Balkan Bourgeois Style

Soufli is a small town in North Eastern Greece in the area of Thrace very close to the Turkish and Bulgarian borders. Renowed for its silk manufacturing, Soufli flourished as a small but dynamic centre in the late 19th c. and early 20th c. when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
This building, painted in bold yellow, manifests the days of wealth gone by. It stands as a reminiscence of the provincial bourgeoisie that sprung up in many towns in the Balkans more than a hundred years ago. Photo taken in May 2006.

Blue corner, London

Christopher's Place in London, just off busy Oxford Street is a hype place for a lively urban crowd. Nothing too loud here, just sophisticated casualty in a blend of millennium chic and British-Italian snobbery. Photo taken in March 2006.

Aegean View, Rhodes

Unexpectedly as you are climbing atop Lindos Ancient Acropolis on Rhodes, Greece, your face beaten by salty winds, you open your blinking eyes to this dramatic view. The Bay of Saint Paul emerges like a swimming pool protected by carefully crafted rocks adorned with green tapestry. Photo taken in February 2006.

Anonymous Dear - Warsaw

A stroll in the Powazki Catholic Cemetery in Warsaw can be a beautiful experience in a green park of sculpture and serene elegance. The acquaintance of countless dead carved in stone or marble or comemmorated in enameled photos, like this one, gives one the impression of an endless line of continuity and futility. After completing your visit, go to the nearby Arcadia Shopping Centre and indulge in life's trivial pleasures!
Photo taken in July 2006.

Jugendstil Architecture in Berlin

This beautiful early 20th century building in Berlin, lovingly restored to its former glory, reminds me of a need to create a network of Jugendstil/Art Nouveau buildings around the world. One located them in many big and smaller cities especially in continental Europe and one cannot but wonder on the artistic ingenuity of their creators. I have more photos of similar buildings from various cities and I would like to publish the least known of them. Photo was taken in October 2006.