One of the most important photographers of Modern Greek history, Costas Balafas passed away at the age of 91 in Athens. The well known photographer of World War II and Greek Resistance had shot pictures of some the cruelest aspects of war in Greece.
Costas Balafas was born into a poor agricultural family in 1920 in a village in the mountains of the Arta region. He was impressed by photography at the early age of 11 during a relatives’ visit in Athens and then again in the town of Ioannina where he worked and studied.
Self-taught, he began to take photographs on a regular basis in 1940 especially when he went to the mountains of Epirus to join the partisans in order to record their struggle and, afterwards, the upheaval of the civil war.
His talent, courage and determination brought him to the front line of the Greek-Italian war, where he continued shooting photos despite the imminent danger of his life.
Costas Balafas was one of the founding members of the Hellenic Photographic Society and had traveled throughout Greece taking photographs.
His funeral took place yesterday at the Chalandri Cemetery of Athens.
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