Institution : Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation
Service provider : Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation
Michalis Tsagaris (1950-2020) was born on Long Island, to immigrant parents. He grew up on Long Island and in Japan. He later came to Athens, where he attended the Leontio School and the College of Athens. He studied in New York at the School of Visual Arts, while working in galleries, where his collecting interests began. He worked in shipping, initially in America and then in Athens. He was a leading collector of photographs, gathering and preserving numerous images of Greek modern history, from the greatest early photographers. The photographs in the collection cover a time span of 130 years and a wide variety of subjects, such as the first Greek immigrants to America, war, historical and cultural themes, figures of illegality, portraits, the life of old Athens and many more. The collection has fed two albums, as well as many publications and historical research. The digitization of the archive was implemented within the framework of the Operational Programme Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ESRF 2014-2020) with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union.
