It is with particular pleasure that the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation and the Benaki Museum present the exhibition Nelly: From Athens to New York. A retrospective exhibition of the work of Elli Souyoultzoglou-Seraïdari at the International Center of Photography in New York.

It is no small honour for the work of this great Greek photographer to be exhibited and promoted in New York, where, indeed, she lived and worked for 27 whole years - and particularly at the present time, since for the artist the exhibition comes as she nears her 100th birthday.

Nelly’s work, widely known, is a point of reference for our perception of Western civilisation. She herself was recognised even in her early youth as an important figure in world photography, and her career did nothing more or less than confirm her talent and her standards.

Without seeking attention but working effectively, Nelly achieved something which is the dream of every creative artist: a place in the international artistic pantheon, to which she laid claim without losing any of the features of her nationality. She had the good fortune to see her photographs published in important periodicals around the world, as was the case with her Evzone of 1940, which made the cover of Life when Greece entered the Second World War.

Although she belongs unquestionably to the sphere of Modernism, she was always somewhat ahead of her times and thus succeeded in producing a bold blend of the classical and the modern. Greece owes her a great debt of gratitude, and a crucial part of its cultural history. For that reason, we would like to thank Nelly for her achievements —and, of course, the International Center of Photography for its willing and substantive co-operation with us on the mounting of this exhibition.

THE J.F. COSTOPOULOS FOUNDATION - THE BENAKI MUSEUM