Abstract
The Dictator's Photo Albums: Private and Public Photographs in the Metaxas-Dictatorship
The Greek authoritarian «Fourth of August Regime» (1936–1941) focussed in its propaganda on promoting the dictator Ioannis Metaxas as father, grandfather and «First peasant» and while in foreign policy the close ties to the Balkan Entente was advertised, the transfer of ideas from the European fascist regimes was negated. By examining 57 photo albums preserved today in the Hellenic Parliament Archives the article discusses photo albums as a source for the interpretation of the Metaxas dictatorship and as a source for the history of photography in Greece. It examines the private photo album aesthetics and its use in three official brochures with an exceptional high amount of photographs: Fourth of August 1936–1938, Fourth of August 1938–1939 and Four Years of Government by I. Metaxas, 1936–1940. The article's main argument is, that due to their photo album aesthetic the propaganda brochures were invoking the intimacy of a family album.
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