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Αϊδίνη, 1899 - Αθήνα, 1998.
Έλαβε τη πρώτη της μόρφωση στη Σμύρνη. Μετέβη στη Δρέσδη
για να σπουδάσει ζωγραφική εν τέλει την κέρδισε η
φωτογραφία. Το 1924 εγκαταστάθηκε στη Αθήνα όπου
ασχολείται με τη φωτογράφιση πορτρέτων και θεματικών
ενοτήτων. Απαθανάτησε με ζωντάνια πορτρέτα σημαντικών
προσώπων όπως του Κωστή Παλαμά, Ελευθέριου Βενιζέλου κ.α.
Φωτογράφισε κατ’αποκλειστικότητα τις Δελφικές γιορτές
του Σικελιανού και της Εύας Πάλμερτο 1930. Το 1936
μετέβη στο Βερολίνο για να φωτογραφίσει τους Ολυμπιακούς
Αγώνες. Το 1939 μετέβη στη Ν.Υόρκη, έμεινε μέχρι το 1966
όπου αποτύπωσε στιγμιότυπα από τη κίνηση στους δρόμους
και τες πλατείες.
Δώρισε το μεγαλύτερο κομμάτι του έργου της στο Μουσείο
Μπενάκη. Έχει τιμηθεί με το παράσημο του Ταξιάρχη του
Φοίνικα, με βραβείο της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών. |
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(Greek:
Έλλη Σουγιουλτζόγλου-Σεραϊδάρη)
b. 1899 - d. 1998 (better known as Nelly's) is one the
most celebrated Greek photographers of all time, and
during the interwar period became one of the world's
most celebrated female photographers. Her pictures of
ancient Greek temples against sea and sky backgrounds,
which were published by the first Greek ministries of
tourism, shaped the first visual images of Greece in the
Western mind.
She was born in Aidini, near Smyrna (now İzmir), Asia
Minor, and after the 1922 expulsion of the ethnic Greeks
of Asia Minor by the Turks following the Greco-Turkish
war (1919 - 1922), she went to study photography in
Germany under Hugo Erfurth and Franz Fiedler. In 1924
she came to Greece, where she adopted a nationalistic
and conservative approach to her work.
At some point she was referred to as "the Greek Leni
Riefenstahl" because of her collaboration with the 4th
of August Regime (1936-1941), of which she was one of
its most prolific photographers. As a Greek of the
Diaspora, Nelly's view of Greece tended to be somewhat
"idyllic", which matched the propaganda aims of the
quasi-fascist regime, led by General Ioannis Metaxas. In
fact, her work helped illustrating the idea of the
racial continuity of the Greeks since Antiquity, which
was within Metaxas' agenda.
In 1936 she photographed the Berlin Olympic Games, where
she met Leni Riefenstahl, and accompanied her to
Olympia. In 1939 she was commissioned the decoration of
the interior of the Greek pavilion at the New York's
World Fair, which she did with gigantic collages
expressing the physical similarities between ancient and
modern Greeks.
After the Greek defeat to the German Army in 1941 and
the consequent end of the 4th of August regime, she left
Greece for the United States, where she developed her
talent in new disciplines such as advertising
photography, photo-reportages. In the US she maintained
links with powerful Greeks including shipowners Stavros
Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis and developed contacts
with the White House.
In 1985, Nelly's donated her photo archives and cameras
to the Benaki Museum in Athens, while in 1987 she was
presented with an honorary diploma and medal by the
Hellenic Centre of Photography and the government. In
1993, she was awarded the Order of the Phoenix by the
president of the Greek Republic. In 1996, the Athens
Academy presented her with its Arts and Letters Award.
Nelly's died in Athens, Greece, on August 18, 1998. |
