Olympic Greece
25 images Created 31 Oct 2008
This year the 31st Olympiad controversially comes to London.
In 2004, the Olympics returned to its birthplace in Greece after 2,000 years. Many similarities remain between the debauchery, politics and greed of ancient times.
In 2004 the 29th modern Olympic circus came home to Greece, birthplace of athletics where for 1,100 continuous years, the ancients held their pagan festival of sport and debauchery.
The modern games share many characteristics with its ancient counterpart. Corruption, politics and cheating interfered then as it does now and the 2004 Athens Olympiad will echo both what was great and horrid about the past.
Richard Baker has photographed a light-hearted profile of life along the ancient Olympic trail amid the heat and hope of this year's Athens games. Photographing from Olympia - birthplace of the original Olympics, across the Peloponnese mountains to Marathon, he finds curiosities along the way that contrast with contemporary Athens itself as it chaotically prepares for this year's spectacle.
Culturally-linked to the ancient games and under scrutiny by those nations, including Britain, bidding for the 2012 event, he looks for anachronistic puns and poignant symbols, wryly observing the ancient sites as places of pilgrimage for globe-trotting tourists while in the metropolis, he finds how the capital has delayed its plans for the next sporting frenzy.
(More text available)
(In addition to the Greek material, there is also work from the Hackney Wick dog racing stadium, now demolished for the east London 2012 games development).
In 2004, the Olympics returned to its birthplace in Greece after 2,000 years. Many similarities remain between the debauchery, politics and greed of ancient times.
In 2004 the 29th modern Olympic circus came home to Greece, birthplace of athletics where for 1,100 continuous years, the ancients held their pagan festival of sport and debauchery.
The modern games share many characteristics with its ancient counterpart. Corruption, politics and cheating interfered then as it does now and the 2004 Athens Olympiad will echo both what was great and horrid about the past.
Richard Baker has photographed a light-hearted profile of life along the ancient Olympic trail amid the heat and hope of this year's Athens games. Photographing from Olympia - birthplace of the original Olympics, across the Peloponnese mountains to Marathon, he finds curiosities along the way that contrast with contemporary Athens itself as it chaotically prepares for this year's spectacle.
Culturally-linked to the ancient games and under scrutiny by those nations, including Britain, bidding for the 2012 event, he looks for anachronistic puns and poignant symbols, wryly observing the ancient sites as places of pilgrimage for globe-trotting tourists while in the metropolis, he finds how the capital has delayed its plans for the next sporting frenzy.
(More text available)
(In addition to the Greek material, there is also work from the Hackney Wick dog racing stadium, now demolished for the east London 2012 games development).
