By Nicolas Bard

How much has the island of Patmos changed in recent decades? And how were things back in the 1960s? An American photographer, Robert McCabe, narrates his camera where there is Greece that trip that made him buy a home in Patmos and leave his former life to go there permanently. He first visited the island in 1954 and felt that his company discovered “autonomous cultures” in the Greek islands. In those years Greece did not have the tourism it has today, and the islands lived quite isolated from the mainland. For them, then, travelers who managed to get there, seemed to be discovering new, untouched places.

Robert was fascinated by the natural landscape, history and people of Patmos, and while he was filming until that time, he suddenly turned to the photo and began to capture daily scenes from life from life to this remote island of the Dodecanese. The students of the school with traditional costume, the transportation of donkeys, the virgin beaches with the blossomed countryside and the portraits of the inhabitants of that time are images of distinct value today. He moved permanently to Patmos in 1966, and most of the photos he took and then published in a book are from the 1970s and 1980s.

He also remembers how different life was on the island then. There were no highways, no electricity, while people were waiting in line to pick up a phone. They lived cut off from the rest of the world, but united and loved. They have always had each other, both in the beautiful and the most difficult times. What he will not forget is the hospitality shown by the locals, from the first days on the island. They were invited home for a submarine with a wide smile and plenty of fun. Simple, everyday values ​​that, as strange as they look at us, then meant a lot.

The island has now been modernized and is a pole of attraction for many tourists, not only from Greece but also from the world. He still loves Patmos and does not leave there. He looks at the photos he once took and reminiscent of the years of youth and the appetite for exploration and the creation of a new life from scratch. In those pure years that were captured in a very beautiful and special way from his camera, they are now over. But there is still something that remains alive and does not erase for many years as they pass. And this is the immortal Greek soul and the beauty of our country, which is unique and unbeatable.