Panagiotis Eliopoulos (photographer)
Panagiotis Eliopoulos (also Panos Iliopoulos) was born in a village of Messinia in 1897 and died in Kyparissia in 1985. He fought throughout the Asia Minor Campaign and following the defeat, emigrated illegally to the United States in 1923. There he took classes in photography, painting and cinema. Returning to Greece in 1930, he opened a photography studio at Philiatra, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1947 he opened a second studio in Kyparissia. In 1964 he shut down his shop but continued to be involved in photography on a personal level.
His photographic oeuvre mainly includes studio portraits, outdoor portraits and scenes, as well as many news photographs from his era, which are of particular historical interest. What makes him an important photographer, however, is the quality of his work, which far exceeds the level of a countryside professional photographer.