Summary
- Photographer Spyros Troupakis has died.
- FOIVOS has published a tribute to his life and work.
- His photographs of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic events are among his notable records.
- The statement also gives funeral arrangements.
The FOIVOS collective management organization has issued a farewell announcement for photographer Spyros Troupakis.
FOIVOS announcement — English translation
We learned with sadness of the passing of our colleague Spyros Troupakis, a member of FOIVOS, who served photography for more than five decades.
Spyros Troupakis was born in Avlonas, Messenia, and maintained strong lifelong ties to his birthplace, the land and olive growing. He studied at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and worked professionally as a photographer in Athens, operating a photography studio in Kypseli for many years.
Alongside his professional work, he developed photography as a means of personal expression and of documenting society, historical memory and the natural environment.
On 17 November 1973, he photographed the streets of Athens and the area around the Polytechnic, documenting that historic day. He first made the images public fifty years later, in 2023.
His work appeared in exhibitions and publications, including “Olive Trees of Greece – Sculptures of Nature” in 2009 and the retrospective “What I Have Seen”, held in Athens in December 2024.
His relationship with nature and olive trees went beyond photography. He was also an olive grower, maintaining his connection with agricultural life and his birthplace.
As someone close to him wrote, he was a man deeply rooted in his village and nature, an olive grower and photographer who referred to himself, meaningfully, as an “olive-photographer”.
Perhaps that self-description best captures his relationship with the land, nature and photographic creation.
We bid farewell to our colleague and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.
The funeral service will take place tomorrow, Saturday, 14 November 2026, at 10:30 a.m., at the Church of Saint George in his neighborhood of Kypseli. On Sunday, 15 November, at noon, he will return for his final resting place in his beloved Avlonas, Messenia, the place to which he remained deeply attached throughout his life.
The Board of Directors of FOIVOS
What we think
Troupakis’s photographs from 17 November 1973 underline the importance of photographic testimony and preserving historical archives. His work deserves to remain accessible to future generations.
