SANTORINI : PORTRAIT OF A VANISHED ERA HC

Today Santorini is visited by some 2.5 million people a year. But when Robert McCabe and his brother arrived there in 1954, they were the only visitors on the island. In this collection of stunning photographs from the 1950s and 1960s – reproduced as tritones of surpassing quality – McCabe has recorded the hardscrabble, yet often romantic, life of a vanished era. Picturesque whitewashed houses dug into the volcanic pumice; the harvest of the island s famous cherry tomatoes; the winding road to the ruins of ancient Thera – all this was captured by his lens. McCabe s photographs are complemented by two essays from the noted Greek journalist Margarita Pournara, one poetically evoking her grandmother s childhood on Santorini and the other explaining the geological forces that have given this volcanic island its dramatic form. A companion to McCabe s recent volume on Mykonos, this book will fascinate modern-day visitors to Santorini, as well as those who trace their roots to the Greek islands.