Schwartz, Daniel. Metamorphoses: Greek Photographs. Photos by Daniel Schwartz.

Thames & Hudson, 1986.  Introduction by Peter Levi. First edition. Fine with just a trace of age toning at page edges, in hardcover with protected dust jacket. 180 pages with Schwartz’ 118 duotone black and white photographs of Greece with a few taken in Turkey and elsewhere in Europe, selected from 30 trips over 10 years from his native Switzerland, where he was awarded the Swiss Federal Grant for Fine Arts three years in a row. Photos include people, landscape, architecture, et al. Some of the Greek locations include Crete, Kythera, Mount Athos, Constantinople (Istanbul), Syracuse, Attica, Athens, Pergamon, Lavrion, Mycenae, Delphi, Epidaurus, Eritrea, Santorini, et al.  Book includes several foldouts. Summary:

Metamorphoses: Greek Photographs is a photographic monograph by Swiss photographer Daniel Schwartz that explores Greece through an artistic and contemplative lens. Published in 1986 with an introduction by Peter Levi, the book gathers 118 black-and-white photographs made over more than a decade of Schwartz’s travels throughout the country and nearby regions.

Rather than presenting a straightforward travelogue, the book examines the layers of history, myth, and modern reality that coexist in Greece’s landscapes, ruins, architecture, and everyday life. Schwartz’s images often reveal the interplay between the ancient and the present, showing how places once central to Greek myth and civilization have been transformed — or “metamorphosed” — over time.

The title reflects this theme of transformation: as the gods, legends, and classical ideals of the past have faded, the physical and cultural landscape continues to shift and evolve. Through his careful compositions, tonal range, and attention to details of light and form, Schwartz invites viewers to see both the visible traces of history and the more subtle, poetic moments in the natural and built environments.

The result is a visual meditation on time, memory, and place, where ancient stone meets contemporary life, and where photography becomes a way of interpreting how meaning and myth persist in Greek landscapes.

Daniel Schwartz (b. 1955) is a Swiss documentary photographer, author, and photojournalist acclaimed for his long-term visual explorations of history, geography, memory, and environmental change across the Eastern Hemisphere. Born in Olten, Switzerland, Schwartz studied photography at the Zurich School of Arts and Craft before embarking on decades of extensive, travel-driven book projects and reportage. In 1986, he published Metamorphoses: Greek Photographs, a contemplative monograph that paired classical sculpture, ruins, museum spaces, and contemporary actors with the landscapes of Greece to examine the enduring dialogue between ancient myth and modern reality. Over his long career—which included becoming the first foreigner to photograph all sections of the Great Wall of China, working on staff for the prestigious cultural magazine Du, and joining the VII Photo Agency—Schwartz established a reputation for rigorous, analogue black-and-white photojournalism. His major monographs, such as Delta (1997) and Travelling through the Eye of History (2009), highlight his commitment to humanistic documentation, whether tracing historical trade routes, recording fragile ecosystems threatened by climate change, or chronicling communities caught in global geopolitical shifts.