Postcards

Postcards were a popular means of communication in the late 19th and throughout most of the 20th century. However, they still retain their artistic, historical, and collector’s value, as they document stories and evoke memories. Cards depicting landscapes, architectural features, or monuments were extremely popular, often promoting the beauty of a place in a formal way. Yet, there are moments when human desires emerge from these landscapes and monuments, like playful little sprites, infusing the scene with a sense of vitality. These silent figures become bridges to the ephemeral, transforming the postcard into a material imprint of the human experience. One such moment is captured in a postcard depicting a citizen of Xanthi, trying to catch our attention by waving his flatcap in the foreground of the city’s panorama taken from the south, somewhere around 1900.