ABSTRACT
The notion of 'imaginary' is often used today in French historiography. Greece occupies an old and exceptional place in the European geographic imaginary, as well as in histories of both tourism and photography. Since the Renaissance, region has been visited by learned individuals who consider it the cradle of Europe. This propaganda was intended to influence the Peace conference where Greece aspired to win territory. Fred Boissonnas crisscrossed Greece as no other traveling photographer had before him, photographing different regions, both ancient and new, as they became integrated to Greek space. The distribution of these images opened new spaces and new perspectives to the European imaginary, signaling their existence, estheticizing them and giving them meaning. The rise of a tourism infrastructure offered new channels for the distribution of images destined to tourism promotion. The photographer Fred Boissonnas played a pioneering role in the establishment of tourism in Greece by creating an imaginary linked to the promotion of novel touristic practices.
