Mary Paraskeva

Mary Paraskeva (; née Gripari , 1882–1951) was a Greek amateur photographer; her photographic legacy from the beginning of the 20th century is probably the earliest known by a Greek woman.

Biography Born on the island of Mykonos, Paraskeva was the daughter of shipping magnate Nicolas Gripari who had a prosperous export business in Odessa and a large estate at Baranovka in northwestern Ukraine. Paraskeva, who married the Greek engineer Nikos Paraskevas from Alexandria in 1903, started photographing from her late teens or early twenties. The photographs of both Mary Paraskeva and Argine Salvago were rediscovered in the late 1990s. They were first revealed by Maria Karavia in her book Odissos, i lismonimeni patrida (Odessa, the forgotten homeland), Agra Editions, Athens 1998.

Digitization Most of the images taken by Mary Paraskeva have been donated by her great-nephew Petros Griparis to the Benaki Museum in Athens, where there are plans to exhibit them as digital prints.