To celebrate the 180th anniversary of its existence (January 6, 1837), the Archaeological Society of Athens decided that the publication of a series of photographs of Greek monuments, most of which were taken from the Society's excavations by the young student Robert McCabe during the 1950s, would best honor this rare anniversary.

The photographs are numerous and diverse. Places that have changed today, monuments in their former state before being restored, streets of Athens that are now recognized only by the elderly, villages transformed by social changes.

What makes the photographs historical documents is Bob McCabe's perspective. Unaffected by their daily relevance to the realities of the then Greeks, he sees everything for the first time and notes those details that would be insignificant to us. The light and shadow revealing the forms, the guard resting from the heat, the unknown woman walking down a deserted street, acquire symbolic significance.

The floor, worn by water and footsteps, becomes a play of shadows moving according to the whims of the sun. Everything interests him; the deserted railway station, the photographer of Delphi, the craftsmen who carved the marbles, constitute testimonies of a forgotten world that few have experienced today.

All these forgotten or never seen by today's people become for the younger generation, the present, a lesson in memory.