“In our photograph, the magazine features on its cover the café-teké, the wooden structure by Alekos Balalas. The name of the establishment is ‘Therapeutirion Melancholias’.”
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Grand, eh? And yet it was in places like those psychiatric hospitals that the whole genre got started…
Is there a little bouzouki on the outside as well, or am I imagining it (underneath „Melancholia“)?
I’m not sure, George. The photo wasn’t any higher resolution. What can be seen generally looks similar, but I don’t think it is.
I see it more as a sketch than a proper instrument.
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The photo was first published in the magazine LAIKO TRAGOUDI, which was published by Giorgos Kontogiannis. I have the issue somewhere; I’ll look for it and upload it in a higher resolution (I think it was clearer—the upload just doesn’t do it justice).
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If only, Babis; however you do it, it is evidence of an era.
Does the magazine perhaps also mention which area this particular tekke was in?
“Georgaki, fill one for Mr. Marko.” “Yes, Dad!”
Could it possibly be a flat bouzouki?
Anyway, it kind of looks like a bouzouki, eh?
Now, as for what has been added to the photo and what hasn’t, presumably the person who took it would know — perhaps they’re no longer around to tell us!
It’s definitely a bouzouki; it just looks to me as though it’s painted on the wall rather than being a real instrument hanging there. I am puzzled, though, by a shadow visible at the edge of the body.
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I think it’s real: who would go to the trouble of painting a life-size bouzouki on the outside wall of such a shack, with strange but accurate perspective? Because it looks accurate to me: it’s hanging by the classic loop from a nail, and it’s tilted slightly.
The truth is that it does look rather shallow. I don’t know…
In any case, the neck, although it’s very blurry, seems to end in a tambourine-shaped head, don’t you think? I mean, without the flattened part that constitutes the actual headstock on bouzoukis, mandolins, guitars, etc.
Is there a date for it?
That pole in front of the door???
How often I see these inscriptions in Greek photographs, which were probably added later! And why isn’t the instrument hanging vertically? I don’t know…
It simply didn’t get in the way of either the people being photographed or the photographer…
It’s standing perfectly normally, but it’s probably a drawing rather than a real bouzouki hanging up.
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We want a photo from the inside—what are we supposed to do outside? 
Well, we more or less know them…
Yes, but what is it? Why does it suddenly sprout up there in the middle like the lyre player?
(Cretan expression for anything that’s right in the middle)
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