Corinth Photographers Leave their Collection to the ASCSA
Lenio and Ino at work in Corinth
In 1959 two young women, Ino Ioannidou and Lenio Bartziotou, opened a photographic studio in Athens on Valaoritou 9 (later they moved to Voukourestiou 13). Ino, who studied chemistry at the University of Athens, had worked at the National Archaeological Museum as an advisor to the conservation department. Lenio had worked with an uncle, who was a photographer, and from him she learned dark room techniques. They became the official photographers for the Corinth Excavations in 1965 and continued there until their retirement in 2003. Their work appears in Hesperia, and in all Corinth volumes published since the 1970s. In addition to archaeological photography, an interest in modern Greece led to their documenting lansdcapes in many parts of the country, in particular, the Cyclades, and, to a lesser extent, Crete, from the 1950’s on; in the course of their travels they also took photographs of ethnographic interest. For example, there is an outstanding series of photographs of women participating in the annual festival of the Anastenaria, the fire-walkers, in Macedonia, starting with psychological and emotional preparation and followed by actual walking on hot coals.  Lenio and Ino also traveled extensively in the Levant and North Africa, documenting their travels, the sites they visited, and the people they met in a rich series of colored slides, as well as other photographs. There are also portrait photographs of artists, actors/actresses, and friends.  Ino died in April 2015, and Lenio a few months later, in September of 2015.  It was their wish that the School's Archives receive their valuable photographic collection.