Summary
- A permanent Costas Balafas exhibition is open in Ioannina.
- It features photographs of people and landscapes in Epirus.
- Reproductions are based on original prints provided by his son.
- The show continues beyond Photometria 2026.
Event Details
The people and landscapes photographed by Costas Balafas now have a permanent home in the city of Ioannina, through a new exhibition at the Photometria Photography Center.
“On the Thread of Time: People and Landscapes of the Epirus Region” opened on September 26, 2026, as part of the 18th Photometria festival, and remains on the center’s first floor after the festival ends.
Epirus and the everyday lives behind the photographs
From the streets and markets of Ioannina to life around the lake and shepherding in the hills, the selection depicts work, resilience and the bond between people and place. These portraits and street scenes are more than nostalgic glimpses of a vanished era: they preserve traces of how communities lived.
What the original prints reveal
The exhibition uses new reproductions based on original prints provided to the Photometria Photography Center by the photographer’s son, Giorgos Balafas. Curator Hara Sklika looks not only at the subjects but also at the decisions the photographer made in the darkroom.
The original prints vary in size, tonal contrast and shades. Some exist in alternate versions, including horizontally reversed prints from the same negative. Such differences offer valuable evidence of how Balafas revisited and shaped his images rather than treating each negative as a fixed final work.
Locations were identified largely from handwritten labels Balafas attached to print folders. A provisional date range of approximately 1950–1970 was established by comparison with earlier publications of his work.
Who was Costas Balafas?
Costas Balafas (1917–2011) was born in Kypseli, formerly Chosepsi, in the Arta region. During the Second World War occupation, he joined ELAS and documented the resistance in Epirus. He later worked for Greece’s Public Power Corporation as a photographer and filmmaker while continuing to document rural life, livelihoods and traditions.
In 2008 he donated his photographic work to the Benaki Museum, including negatives, original prints, films and related testimonies. The permanent exhibition returns a part of that visual history to the region where many of the images were made.
Location and visiting hours
The exhibition is on the first floor of the Photometria Photography Center, 20 Fotou Tzavella Street (extension of Michail Angelou Street), Ioannina, Greece. The announced opening hours are Wednesday through Friday, 17:00–21:00, and Saturday, 11:00–16:00. It opened September 26 and will remain after the 18th festival ends.
Its opening formed part of the Photometria 2026 festival program, which features photography exhibitions and events at locations across Ioannina. The works were digitized by Dimitris Pazaitis, with printing and framing donated by Marios Vainvourm’s Psifiako Typoma.
What we think
Keeping Balafas’s photographs permanently accessible in Ioannina feels especially fitting. Visitors can look at the pictures in the region they depict, compare them with the present and see both what has changed and what remains familiar.
For photographers, the variations between original prints may be the most revealing part of the story. They remind us that a photograph is not necessarily finished when the shutter closes. Tonal choices, framing and printmaking all shape how we read a scene. This is an exhibition worth exploring slowly, with attention to those decisions.
