Photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna’s travels in Greece have truly captivated him – his new book showcases the exquisite homes he’s visited there
LINDOS, RHODES
In Jasper Conran and Oisin Byrne’s home, the Sala (above) – formerly the hub of the house – is never used. It has been left untouched, pretty much as the couple found it – the raised platforms where entire generations lived together throughout the centuries are still there. Children were born and grew up in that room and then, when it was their turn, had their own children there. Conran and Byrne feel that they must respect the rhythm of the past. They are guardians of the Sala and will protect it, keeping it intact until, in the future, someone else inherits the mantle. The house is, in reality, two 500-year-old houses that were put together last century. Between calls and emails, the couple read in the lemon grove, enjoy meals under 800-year-old olive trees and have dips in the plunge pool.
HYDRA TOWN, HYDRA
Helen and Brice Marden’s house is full of echoes, shadows, and subtleties that whisper hints about their captivating lives. The couple has been coming to Hydra for decades and they own two properties on the island. The one that I am photographing is the Lower House, set a few steps from the main harbour. Built in the 18th century, this solid and grandly proportioned structure does not belie the herculean artistic endeavours that are embraced within its walls. The house is quiet, its silence broken only by the movement of foliage coming from the garden – aprotective green carapace where nature, one of the couple’s other loves, is free to grow undisturbed.
CHORA, PATMOS
Abutting the monastery are the houses that Peter Speliopoulos and his partner, Robert L. Turner, combined to create their Patmos home. These transplanted New Yorkers take up residence on the island during early spring and early autumn. The rooms they have created echo the tranquillity and reverence of their ecclesiastical neighbour. One discovers their labyrinthine home with a sense of awe, room after room being a perfect distillation of their love for the purity of shape and their belief in the intrinsic nobility of raw material. Linen, stone, clay and glass are the foundational elements of the house. I first visited the property a few years back. I found the rooms minimally appointed, and yet full of spirit.
KARDAMYLI, MESSENIA
After many years of being guests or house-sitters in their friends’ homes, the writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor and the photographer Joan Eyres Monsell found the perfect spo
