"Wherever I may be in the world, at any hour of the day or night, I can close my eyes and recall memories of the Aegean, vivid and alive. Some of them are visual, while others revive all kinds of events, often associated with the remarkable hospitality we received. It is a wonderful treasure of memories to always have at hand. Thank you for joining us on this journey of memories in the Aegean Sea—full of memories captured in images by me, and memories depicted in words, from friends who love the Aegean. The book you are holding is a tribute to the Aegean and its people.

The visual memories presented were created mainly with a Rolleiflex camera on black-and-white Plus-X film, and a Nikon camera on color Kodachrome film. They depict journeys that began in 1954 across the islands of the Aegean. In them, you will meet many people who work with the sea: fishermen, shipwrights, ship crews, and dock workers. You will also get to know the women who take care of the households and children, carry heavy jugs of water, cook, spin, knit; and the children, sometimes at work and sometimes at play. Along with them, workers, bakers, farmers. You will visit villages and festivals in the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.

I hope you enjoy the journey! It is an honor for us to include in this volume the evocative poem by Patrick Leigh Fermor, "Greek Archipelagoes", and we are grateful to Artemis Cooper for permission to reprint it. In 1993 we traveled by boat to visit Paddy and Joan in Kardamyli, and he gave my daughter a copy of the poem, inspired by their shared enthusiasm for the story of the wizard Genoupa, who was transformed by St. John the Theologian into a stone at the bottom of Patmos harbor.

I warmly thank Iason Megoulas, Cacao Rocks, for the amazing cover he created for the book, featuring the boats arriving at Panagia tou Geranou in Patmos for the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Margarita Pournara played a decisive role in the genesis of this book. After we had finished our book about Santorini, she asked me: "And the Aegean?" I understood her meaning and created a new folder entitled "Scenes from the Greek Seas, for Margarita." Margarita arranged a meeting with Kostas Vidakis, one of the greatest Greek photographers. He soon selected 80 of the folder's photographs and organized the exhibition "Memories from the Aegean" in the beautiful exhibition space of the AMKE "Kyklops" in Drama. The warm reception of the exhibition by the public, and the encouragement over the years by Giorgos Chatzimarkos, led to the creation of this book.

I am deeply grateful to Giorgos Chatzimarkos, Kostas Vidakis, Dimitris Athanasoulis, Eleni Pharmakidou, Nikos Stambolidis, Stratos Efthymiou, Sandra Marinopoulou, Aris Theodoridis, Rod Heikell, Rita Wilson, Nikos Petrou, Katerina Katopi Lykiardopoulou, Ourania Vyzyinou, Nikos Mastropavlos, Andreas Georgiadis, Johanna Hanink, Anna Pataki, Anna McCabe, Kostas Simo, Kostas Giannopoulos, Massimo and Anna Tonolli with their team at Trifolio, Sylvia Zanetti, Sofia and Giorgos Marinos, AMKE Kyklops, Kyriakos Syfiltsoglou, Krystalli Glyniadaki, Maria Somaripa, Evgenia Troullou, Maria Alexiou, Kostas Karasavvidis, Aris Bilalis, Kostas Thoktaridis, Lefteris Zorzos."

Robert A. McCabe