Limassolians I wish I had photographed | Limassol Photographer

any towns worldwide have famous residents and visitors, with London and Los Angeles providing tabloid photographers with their daily fodder.

Over the years, the small island of Cyprus has had many a famous face grace its shores, including, but not limited to, Winston Churchill, Paul Newman, Yuri Gagarin. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton—to name but a handful.

I have even had the privilege of seeing close-up in Cyprus the musician Elton John, the Olympic athlete Carl Lewis, and the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong, though I was too young and too in awe to take a photograph of any of them. The first time I ever took a photograph of someone famous was when my mother, a journalist, went to interview former Concorde test pilot, John Cochrane, who lived in the village of Maroni. He and his wife kept a gigantic rabbit as a pet and quite frankly, as a child, it was the furry face I was more enthralled by than the famous face.

Limassol too has had its famous residents including three ex-Presidents, the first being Spyros Kyprianou, an old friend of my grandmother’s whose somewhat expressionless visage stares back at me from her mantelpiece.

But there are two Limassolians I really wish I had been able to photograph. One unfortunately Is no longer with is, and so that opportunity will never present itself. The other is still very much alive and so maybe one day this Limassol photographer will have his wish fulfilled.

As a film maker myself, I am particularly interested in others who see life from behind a lens. Michael Cacoyannis, born in Limassol in 1922, was an Academy Award winning film director whose most renowned work was Zorba the Greek. One of the most iconic stills ever taken from a feature film is that of the actors Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates dancing the ‘sirtaki’on a Cretan shore. How I wish this Limassol photographer could have been on that beach and photographed that Limassolian as he directed one of the most joyful and iconic scenes in film history.

Marcos Baghdatis was born in Paramytha, Limassol in 1985. He is the best tennis player Cyprus has ever produced and in his illustrious career has beaten the likes of Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. I have had the pleasure of watching Marcos play many times at the Davis Cup in Cyprus and at Wimbledon in the UK. You would think, therefore , that I had taken many photos of him, well, truth be told, I have taken none. When you are an avid tennis fan and you are enthralled in a match the very last thing you think to do is to take your camera out and start shooting. But what made Marcos great was not just the genius of his game but the charismatic smile that has made him a fan-favourite across the globe. Though I will never be able to photograph him playing professional tennis, maybe one day this Limassol photographer will have the honour of photographing him in his retirement in our home town of Limassol.