Greece after the war. The years of hope

My first visit to Greece took place in the summer of 1954. Ten years had passed since the withdrawal of the Germans and five years since the end of the Civil War. The Greece I first saw was mired in poverty. This was evident everywhere. "Often when you talked to a Greek about the beauty of his country, he would follow with a 'yes, but it is very poor' - and to back up what he was saying he would rub his thumb with his index finger." ROBERT A. MCCABE "Many of Robert McCabe's captivating photographs (taken in various parts of Greece from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s) allow glimpses of a dialectic between different moments in Greek history and culture , as they were preserved in post-war Greece". PANAGIOTIS ROILOS "Robert McCabe's black-and-white image of the laborer working intensively in the grounds of the Herodeion that was intended to be the center of the Festival vividly brings before our eyes the years of this "opening", this transitional point in time between an era of terrible hardships which was also the result of a new, hopeful reconstruction that he initiated". KATERINA LIMPEROPOULOU