The Greek File

A stunning collection by William Abranowicz, The Greek File captures the essence of Greece-an alluring country where life itself is stripped down to its most essential components and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. From a single white cloud floating in a clear sky to a wrinkled linen shirt drying in the sun to shores dotted with throngs of buildings like pebbles washed in from the sea, Abranowicz's work elevates simple everyday objects to objects of austere beauty. These photographs capture the many facets of the Greek islands: their serenity, exceptional light, and arresting art and architecture.

Just as Abranowicz reveals the beauty of Greece through imagery, so too does world-renowned author and scholar Edmund Keeley unveil the subtle poetry of this Hellenic paradise. With an introduction by Keeley as well as an excerpt from The Colussus of Maroussi by Henry Miller, this elegantly designed volume is both a visual and literary treasure that is as rich and enchanting as the country it portrays.

After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, William Abranowicz assisted renowned photographers George A. Tice and Horst P. Horst. As a printmaker he printed the negatives of Michael Disfarmer, Horst, George Hoyningen Heune, and Edward Steichen. He has taught photography at the Parsons School of Design and the New School for Social Research. A contributing photographer for Condé Nast Traveler, he has also photographed regularly for Martha Stewart Living since the magazine's inception. He has photographed features for the New York Times Magazine, House & Garden, Elle Décor, and In Style. His photographs are exhibited at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York City and are in public, private, and corporate collections throughout the world. Abranowicz was recently nominated for Life magazine's Alfred Eisenstadt Award for travel photography. He lives in Bedford, New York.

Edmund Keeley, a graduate of Princeton and Oxford, taught from 1954 to 1994 at Princeton, where he served for some years as Director of the Creative Writing Program and of the Program in Hellenic Studies and where he is now Charles Barnwell Straut Professor of English Emeritus. The author of a number of novels and works of non-fiction, including Inventing Paradise: The Greek Journey, 1937-1947, which earned him the 1999 Critic's Prize of the London Hellenic Society, he is also an award-winning translator of many important modern Greek poets. Most recently he received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (199) and the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation (2000) as career awards. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and Athens, Greece.