The history ofPhotography in Greece began in the mid-19th century with European pioneers likeGaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly using thedaguerreotype method to capture Greek landscapes. The first Greek photographer was the painterFilippos Margaritis (1839–1892), who opened the first professional studio in Athens in 1853. The field developed significantly with portraitists likePetros Moraitis and, critically, the Swiss photographerFrédéric Boissonnas, whose extensive landscape work (1903–1933) helped establish Greece's classical identity and promote the country as a tourist destination by visually linking its ancient past with its contemporary setting.
In 1840s,Philibert Perraud (1815-1863?), a French photographer, came to Greece and taught photography toFilippos Margaritis (Greek painter), who was said to be the first Greek photographer and who later opened the first Greek professional photo studio in 1853, in Athens.
In 1859, Greek photographerPetros Moraites opened his photo studio in Athens with Athanasios Kalfas. He took many portraits of many Greek people including theroyal family and around 1870 became one of the most notable photographers in Greece at that time.
According to a guide book published in 1891, 27 photo studios existed in Greece.
Alkis Xanthakis, History of Greek Photography, 1839-1960 (English translation by J. Solman & G. Cox), Hellenic literary & Historical Archives Society, Athens 1988 (ISBN978-9602010648)
Kostas Ioannidis, Contemporary Greek Photography:A Century in Thirty Years, Athens, Futura, 2008KAPUT Art magazine
Athens 1839–1900: Photographic Record (Athens, Benaki Museum, 2003)
Das Land der Griechen mit der Seele Suchen (Cologne, 1990)
John Stathatos, The Invention of Landscape: Greek Landscape and Greek Photography, 1870–1995 (Thessaloniki, 1996)
John Stathatos, Image and Icon: The New Greek Photography 1975–1995 (1997).
Alkis X. Xanthakis, History of Greek Photography 1839-1970 2008 Papyros Publishing Company, Athens [Greek]
Aspects de la Photographie Hellénique (Nice, Ministère de la Culture Hellénique, Mairie de Nice, 1998)
Fani Constantinou, Photography by James Robertson 'Athens and the Grecian Antiquities' 1853-1854 from the Photographic Archive of the Benaki Museum, Athens, Benaki Museum, 1998
Alkis Xanthakis,Filippos Margaritis, The First Greek Photographer, Athens: Photographos, 1900 [Greek]
Alkis Xanthakis, Nineteenth Century Greece through the lens of Petros Moraitis, Athens, Potamos, 2001 [Greek]
Haris Yiakoumis, La Grè ce Photographique et Littèraire au XIXe siècle. Athens, Bastas-Plessas, 1997
Haris Yiakoumis, The Acropolis of Athens, Photographs 1839–1959, Athens, Potamos, 2000