There were two shows organised by Galerie sit down in the rue Ste Anatase, 3e. In the Galerie itself was a Photo Mois show ‘Grece: les annees d’innocence (Greece: the years of innocence) by Robert McCabe, while neighbouring shop windows were full of ‘Les Poupees Bidons‘ by Aurelia Alcais, a rather less serious part of the Photo-Off.
McCabe’s Greece, which ends 19 Dec, is a fine show of black and white work from the 1950s. Born in Chicago in 1934, he stated as so many at an early age with a Box Brownie, and later as a teenager photographed car
accidents on the streets of New York and became interested in press photography.
He made his first visit to France and Greece in 1954, returning to Greece the following year with a Rolleiflex. His pictures from these foreign trips were exhibited at the time at Princeton University.
In 1957 came to Greece again to work for National Geographic – in colour; other assignments included being sent to the South Pole to photograph for the New York Sunday Mirror Magazine.
His pictures reflect very strongly the age in which they were made, both in terms of the scenes that he photographed and his way of seeing. It was an age of innocence both for photography and for Greece.
Aurelia Alcais‘s work certainly added a little fun to things, taking pictures of the stomachs of pregnant women decorated to make faces. Some certainly gave me a belly laugh.