“View of Cyprus: A photographic Itinerary from the 19th to the 20th Century”

This is a photo of the first photo ever taken of Cyprus. Just discovered by the collector Haris Yakumis and exhibited in “View of Cyprus: A photographic Itinerary from the 19th to the 20th Century”, which opened a couple of days ago in Lanitis Foundation in Limassol. The anonemous traveler photographed the school of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition (Larnaca) in September 1960.


From the same exhibition I really liked this photo of Fugères and Merle taken in 1902 in Nicosia. The clumsy framing, alongside with the elements composing the image create an symbolic synopsis of the Island’s projections, desires and realities. The ancient domed church in the background , the traditional ottoman outfit of the man in the middle, the half “westernised” man on the right and the donkey looking in a different direction becomes a rather accurate resume of the years to come (up to the stagnated reality of the present to overpass).