Karolos Vratich - The pioneer of underwater shooting in Greece
Today’s function is dedicated to Karolos Vratich, the first Greek filmmaker of underwater shooting. His father was of Austrian origin, his mother was Greek. They got married in Smyrni, Turkey and came to Greece after the war of 1922. Karolos Vratich was born in Athens in 1930. He finished Leontios School and studied to be an orthodontist in the Dental School.
Having cleared to his mind early on his two big loves , the cinema and the sea, he was fortunate enough to combine them from 1965 and on. That year he takes a degree as a diver from the school in Naples and starts diving and at the same time shooting the bottom with a Russian camera 8mm, whose “diving suit” was his own idea and design. The lights were created by his friend and first companion in diving , Alexandros Markou.
At the beginning of 1970 he passes on, not without hesitation, to super 8mm. His tools , in or out of quotation marks, are now an Italian camera “Silma” and an Austrian one “Euming” , the first to get into water without a “diving suit”.
Using mainly the amateur format of 8mm he shoots many 3-minute films. As strict as many distinguished film makers , he watches them, evaluates the takes, throws away material, shoots again with admirable perseverance what he considers unsuccessful and uses again and again what he considers satisfactory. There are four complete films from that period :
- Life on Greek coasts
- The silent ballad
- The hidden world of the Greek bottom of the sea
- The microcosm of spring
The last one was shot in plain 8 and then “re-shot” in super 8mm, being one of the few concerning the world on the earth and more specifically the insects. There is also quite a lot of material hidden in some attic , still not evaluated or developped. And , of course, as usually happens when we deal with amateur film makers who are artists not ignorant but without receiving any cultural policy and support , there was some part of the material which was thrown away to make room for new material.
However, thanks to one of these films (“The silent ballad”) he takes part in a Festival in the French Institute in 1985. There , the film is seen by Daniel Mercier , in charge of the International Festival of Antibes, who asks for it. Karolos Vratich ,being the first Greek to achieve this, participates and wins the prize of the city of Antibes. The next year he becomes a judge himself. While he is abroad he sees diaporam - a machine for projecting slides adding effects or music etc- and on returning he starts taking photographs using a Cannon camera in a Nimar “diving suit” and Nikonos flashlights the number of which is still unknown.
When the use of video establishes , he continues with High 8, as the motion picture was always his goal and the highest possible definition his standard request. His equipment now consists of a Sony camera, an Ikelite diving suit and two headlights. Some of these films are shown in Goulandris Natural History Museum.Moreover, Karolos Vratich signs a book “On the secret paths of the bottom of our sea” and a scrapbook “Forty Greek Seashells” written by himself and illustrated by Dimitris Mytaras. He also gives his photos or writes articles for magazines about diving, whereas his work was presented in two documentaries: one by Lakis Papastathis in “Paraskinio” (“Backstage”) and one more by Nikos Anagnostopoulos.
I presented only a short C.V. of Mr.Vratich, because some things are still being researched and some others would belong to a special scientific announcement concerning my research about the History of Amateur Cinematography in Greece. Of all I said I would just like you to keep the following : I came across Mr. Vratich in a record shop as he was looking for music for his films. I thought: “Oh, here’s another amateur film maker”. As you understand I couldn’t be more wrong : I had come across the person who started underwater shooting in Greece. That means that our meeting created (allow the pun) the surfacing of a number of questions about scuba diving : what are the prerequisite conditions of underwater film making? What are the difficulties, the requirements? What is the history not only of underwater shooting but also of scuba diving?
Since many things are carefully hidden in individuals’ or organizations’ drawers and many more have not been recorded, it is very possible that someone else might turn up and claim the same thing : that he is the first etc. etc… But still I will always (and together with me many others) feel obliged to Mr. Vratich for giving us (remembering or paraphrasing Stelios Ramfos) “ an aiming field”. It means a topic for discussion, research in a society that still doesn’t know what it wants to say.
I believe that it is a happy coincidence that this night dedicated to our honored guest , a pioneer amateur cinematographer, is being held in the union of Professional Cinematographers. ETEKT and its Chairman, Mr. Tasos Alexakis, have proved that they know how to provide topics for conversation regarding the field of cinema. I would also like to thank the Chairman and the Board for giving us this Hall.
Finally, I would like to thank Ms Vardala Theodorou and Mr. Costas Kyriakopoulos for their substantial contribution, and of course all of you for being here. I would like to ask Mr. Vratich to come forward.
Speech by Nikos Mitroyiannopoulos in the event to honour Karolos Vratich on 12/12/2005, held by the company “Of the Anonymous” in the Cultural Club of ETEKT.