I’m excited to announce my upcoming exhibition "The Perfect Gyros," featuring vintage black and white photos of Greece. The event will take place at the Philadelphia Greek-German Society in Athens, Greece.

Greece is one of my favorite countries. And nothing beats the clack-sound of an analog camera.

It all began long ago, back in the summer of 1978, when in the spirit of legendary street photographers who came before me, I grabbed my Pentax KM, and decided to take it on a journey. I packed her carefully for an ambitious expedition to a large, ancient, and mysterious land known to the Germans as "Griechenland."

The hospitality of the Greek people was overwhelming. When folks talked to me I didn't understand a word. So I responded by listening. I answered by moving my hands. I spoke by making one mechanical click-clack sound after another.

And I took their pictures.

Flash forward 15 years, I returned to Greece with a referral in my pocket to the German Evangelical Church, which has been home to the German community in Athens since 1837. Through the connections I made at the church, I settled into one of the most profound periods of my life, living and working as a professional photographer for fashion magazines in Athens.

And it clicked again. This time in color and medium format. I shot using a Mamiya camera and various motorized and automated Pentax LX.

Although I left Greece in 1996 to settle in Paris and later, Los Angeles, I never forgot the warm and welcoming spirit of "Griechenland." In 2017, I married my American wife at the same German Evangelical Church at the foot of Mount Lycabettus. And in 2020, we got ourselves an apartment there. We now visit Greece every year, and cherish the wonderful people we now call our dear friends. And through this amazing circle, I was invited to present my first photo exhibition in Maroussi, the same beautiful leafy northern suburb of Athens that Henry Miller immortalized in his famous novel.

Taking these photos was indeed the start of something beautiful. Today, giving these images back is not only my duty but also fun.

I've become a Sony photographer in the meantime and went all-digital. May my Pentax KM rest in peace. My darkroom is long gone as well. But the prints are here – including cute merch!! 😍

And by the most amazing happenstance, Pentax is making a manual point-and-shoot camera that will launch this summer.

Hey, let's all go retro. See you in Maroussi!