Andreas Papandreou. Press Conference after his arrival in Paris. 1968

  


When the Greek Colonels led by Georgios Papadopoulos seized power in April 1967, Andreas Papandreou was incarcerated.
 Under heavy pressure from American academics and intellectuals, such as John Kenneth Galbraith, a friend of Andreas since their Harvard days, the military regime released Andreas on condition that he leave the country.

All photographs by Simos Tsapnidis

La Maison Rose. 1970

La Maison Rose.
2 Rue Abreuvoir, 75018 Paris, France

A relic of Montmartre’s golden days. It occupies a corner position just up the road from the famous Lapin Agile where Picasso and crew used to hang out and has a plaque outside proclaiming its importance as subject matter for a painting by Utrillo. They say that Picasso actually lived in the building at one time.
Photo by Simos Tsapnidis (August of 1970) .

Gregoris Lambrakis, Leonidas Kirkos,Manolis Glezos. Aldermaston march. April of 1963

(Left to Right) Leonidas Kirkos, Monk leader of Hiroshima group, Manolis Glezos and Gregoris Lambrakis, Aldermaston march, 1963.

The group of Hiroshima was at the head of the march,because Hiroshima is the first city in history  destroyed by atomic bomb (August 6, 1945).
The monk was hitting the drum mourning with the words...

Beatniks by the river Seine. Paris, 1965

Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948, generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that time. The name came up in conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes who published an early Beat Generation novel, Go (1952), along with a manifesto in The New York Times Magazine: "This Is the Beat Generation" In 1954, Nolan Miller published his third novel, Why I Am So Beat (Putnam), detailing the weekend parties of four students.

 The word "beatnik" was coined by Herb Caen in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958. Caen coined the term by adding the Russian suffix -nik after Sputnik I to the Beat Generation. Caen's column with the word came six months after the launch of Sputnik. Objecting to Caen's twist on the term, Allen Ginsberg wrote to the New York Times to deplore "the foul word beatnik," commenting, "If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man."
 (Photographs by Simos Tsapnidis)

Alexander Iolas and Victor Brauner. Paris, 1965

Photographs by Simos Tsapnidis, 1965.
   Copyright Manolis Daloukas.
   More photos in our archives, all in High Resolution.

Greeks protesting against greek military junta. London, May of 1967

Photograph by Simos Tsapnidis

PALETTE . Hamburg. February of 1958

PALETTE. In the 50’s and early 60’s, Palette, in the still destroyed center of Hamburg, was the essential hangout for ‘Exis’ or ‘Existentialists’, who were more or less a mix between Beatniks and Mods. The Palette was more like a pub, but maybe with the first jukebox in Hamburg playing records by Elvis or Cool Jazz and French Chansons.
The crowd was a bizarre mix of art students, gangsters, dropouts, bohemians and sometimes the motorcycle rockers from another Pub next door.The first ‘happenings’ were held here, with young authors and poets like Hubert Fichte who used to read or improvise lyrics to Jazz music just like the Beats in San Francisco.The man with the cane (photo) is Simos Tsapnidis, the leader of Greek Existentialists.