CONSTANTINOPLE – Ioannis Biros, the artist cataloguing the treasures of Halki Monastery and other religious artifacts in Constantinople, spoke with The National Herald about his work preserving Hellenic cultural heritage and history. Senior Graphic Designer and Photographer for the Metropolis of Derkoi of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople as well as a Database Specialist, Biros is originally from Drama, and explained how he became involved with this tremendous effort for Hellenism.
TNH: Have you always been interested in art, especially in relation to the Church?
IB: As a young child I was drawing and continued my studies in drawing, freehand, linear and architectural Drawing, Graphic Design and Photography, but also with my great love for art and the Church.
TNH: What is the most surprising thing you have learned working at Halki?
IB: Many things! I saw, touched, photographed, and felt all the History of Hellenism and Orthodoxy passing through me and shocking me through the thousands of unique centuries-old manuscripts and very old books that I had the honor of reading many of them.
TNH: What is the most challenging and rewarding aspect of your job?
IB: There are many difficulties in a foreign country but my will, patience and love to contribute to the history of Hellenism and Orthodoxy give me the strength to continue my project for 10 years now in Constantinople and overcome anything that I find difficult.
The most rewarding moment of my project is when I complete, piece by piece, a bit of the puzzle that encompasses all of the enormous and historic cultural heritage of Hellenism in Constantinople and receive the appreciation of people who recognize my efforts.
TNH: Where can people see your photos?
IB: A few of my tens of thousands of photos that relate to the centuries-old artifacts and items have been published in two Greek newspapers and were shown in a TV interview on ET3’s Diaspora.
All the rest have not seen the light of publicity but in the future I am thinking of presenting them through books and photo albums.
TNH: Do you have upcoming shows or exhibitions?
IB: I have been approached for interviews but I’ll give them later. I haven’t had any exhibitions yet because it wasn’t my primary goal, but that too will happen in good time.
TNH: Tell us how you came to work in Constantinople.
IB: I had been working in Ankara as a Graphic Designer. The president of the company, Antonis Filippidis, suggested that I go to Constantinople to organize a network of computers and a special scanner worth 15,000 euros, a donation of his own, to digitize 30,000 historic, old books donated by the Sakoulides family to the Greek Consulate in Constantinople on the condition that they be digitized.
There the love that I felt as a child for our History I felt growing through my volunteer work at the Greek Consulate of Constantinople.
I felt honored to contribute to the digital preservation of our Greek cultural heritage and history. This new experience was decisive for my choices and my course in Constantinople.
Learning that the Halki Theological School in the Pringiponisa of Constantinople was beginning to digitize the huge number of old, unique manuscripts and historic books in its library, I spoke with His Eminence then-Metropolitan of Bursa, and now Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, about the work.
He warmly welcomed me to the Theological School to stay and start immediately. I lived there for eight months and volunteered to do the digitization and I designed mock-ups for visualizing the School through photography, printouts, social media, the logos of the School, its inscriptions, and for the packaging of its organic products.
After eight months, I was invited by His Eminence Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi. At the meeting, I presented what I could create for the Metropolis of Derkoi in photography and digitization of its ancient heirlooms. His Eminence welcomed me and said, “Look, when we search for the right person for what we need, God sends him to our door!”
My first mission at the Metropolis of Derkoi was to record and photograph the Cemetery of Orthodox Christians of Makrochori, Constantinople.
From what they offered me for work on the Cemetery Database, I asked for only 1/5 of the amount since I wanted to make this contribution for the Hellenism of Constantinople at the minimum pay.
Overall, I prepared the database with photos and details for the churches St. George Makrochori, St. Paraskevi Therapion, St. Stephen’s in Yesikoy and for the Cemeteries of Makrochori, Therapion, and Buyukdere, the Makrochori Urban School and included the many hundreds of ancient relics and icons.
Immediately afterwards I was commissioned by the Director of the Historical Zografeio Lykeio of Constantinople, Yiannis Demirtzoglou, to create a database for all the Historic Exhibitions of the Zografeio Lykeio and the design of the school’s brand, the photography, and numerous video presentations and visuals on social media for the school.
The Director of the Patriarchal School Nisou Protis, Diamantis Kombopoulos, invited me to design the logo, commemorative diplomas, photography and video presentation on the efforts of the Patriarchal school.
Immediately afterwards I photographed artifacts and old icons with full details for the Church of St. Panteleimon and for the Church of St. George and I created the database for both churches in Kuzguncuk, a neighborhood on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Constantinople.
Then I photographed artifacts and icons and created databases for the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, the Kuzguncuk Cemetery, Kandilli Cemetery, and the Church of Sts. Constantine and Helen in the Highlands of Constantinople.
Then, I was honored to photograph and record all the details of the many centuries-old historical relics of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and create a Database for them!
I then undertook to photograph, record the details of the relics, and set up a database on St. John the Baptist but also for the church of St. John the Baptist in Sariyer, Bosphorus.
Then I took detailed photography with over 700 photos of all 206 rooms and spaces inside and out on each floor of the historic Orphanage on Prinkipo Island, which is the largest wooden multilevel building in Europe.
Then in Nihori of the Bosphorus I took up page-by-page photography of 53 old books called Codices with a total number of over 16,000 pages.
I also did detailed photography for the Churches of Panagia Koumariotissa, St. Nicholas, St. George, and the Holy Manger in Nihori, Constantinople.
In addition to all of the above I have made dozens of photos and videos from religious events and holidays for the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the churches throughout Constantinople and I created digital albums for the historical archive of all of them.
Also I have done a lot of graphic design work related to official seals of Metropolises, Churches, Church Committees, and also poster design for events of the Church, Zografeio Lykeio, and many others.
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