“13 photos of abandonment” is a project by Giorgos Zontanos that documents an abandoned house in Thasos, taking us back in time to about half a century ago in Greece. “The house is in my mother’s village, in Prinos, Thassos. It was built before the war, in the late 1920s, and was considered large compared to the other buildings of the village at the time, as the owners, who shared their time between the tobacco industry and cultivating their own vines and olive trees, were considered wealthy. Indicative of the luxury of the house is its furniture, which stands out compared to that of the other houses in the settlement. The building had probably been restored sometime during the ’50s, the same decade that the family’s children got married and left the island. It was abandoned in the early ’70s as, following the death of her husband, the housewife moved out to live with one of her two daughters. In a sense, the house is still full of life: through the objects that have been left behind, one gets the impression that the tenants have simply gone on a summer vacation. Unfortunately, the structural instability of the building didn’t allow me to photograph many of the details that caught my eye. I hope, however, that it remains standing in the future, so I can visit it again. “
