Ano Poli in photography from the 20th to the 21st century:

politics of nostalgia and urban branding

Abstract

In this article we examine how the neighbourhood of Ano Poli and everyday life in its streets are
presented in photographic exhibitions and photographic books that were published in the 1970s
and shaped the public image of a historical part of the city. Although Ano Poli was not a popular
photographic subject in the first two post-war decades, as the architecture of the area did not
respond to the discourse of post-war modernism, with the prevalence of antiparochi it came back
into the limelight as a part of the old city in need of protection, invested with nostalgia and
functioning as a photographic attraction. From the 1980s onwards, especially with the
celebrations of the city's 2300 years in 1985 and the designation of Thessaloniki as European
Capital of Culture in 1997, we will investigate how the multicultural discourse on the city in the
public sphere shapes, through photography, the new image built for the Ano Poli in proportion
to the demands of urban branding.