Dimitris Varos – Revolutionary on Sunday

Dimitris Varos is a modern Greek journalist, poet and photographer, who was born in 1949 on the island of Chios. Though not associated with great deeds, he reinvented the concept of newspapers in all Greece.

Varos studied journalism in London, where he probably learned about the concept of British / American newspapers, which in a certain extend promote their Sunday releases, like “The Sunday Times” and the like. This concept, however, was rather unknown in his mother country Greece, where the Sunday edition was more or less neglected by press.

His first experience in the journalistic branch Varos gained in the local newspaper Χιακός Λαός (“People of Chios” / “Chians”), in which he worked as an editor. His first act of pioneering, however, was in 1981, where he, together with Alekos Philippopoulos, initiated a reissue of the Greek national newspaper Έθνος (“Nation”), which both made it the first colored newspaper in Greece, and the first newspaper to be created digitally. This development created a new movement of newspapers, who now used a wider variety of styles and appearances, thus making them more distinguishable and, most importantly, different.

Five years later, in 1986, Varos became the director of the spin-off newspaper Έθνος της Κυριακής (“Nation on Sunday”). As previously mentioned, the Sunday edition of the newspapers at the time was not of big importance, but Varos managed to put it into a new perspective and even the creation of further accompanying journals, starting with the magazine “TV Nation”. These smaller magazines even developed into a new market of multifaceted Sunday newspapers, which were dominant in the 1990's in Greece.

Currently Dimitris Varos is in the position of the director of the Τεχνοεκδοτική (“Technoekdotiki”) magazine, which is publishing seven monthly magazines both in print and online medias (state 2013). In matters of his career as a journalist, it is also notable that besides these newspapers and magazines, Varos was also employed as director and editor-in-chief of many other Greek national newspapers such the Ακρόπολης (“Acropolis”), Πρώτη (“First”), Τύπος της Κυριακής (“Typos tis Kyriakis”), Χρώνος (“Time”), Ελληνική Ναυτιλιακή (“Greek Shipping”) and Chapter K. . He is also the creator of other printing media like Έθνος Εργασία (“Nation Work”), Πάμε Αθήνα (“Go Athens”), New Gen, IQ, Relax, Car & Truck, Logistics & Management, Ecotec and others.

But besides his career as a journalist, Dimitris Varos also wrote 5 books, which are all translated into the English language. We are Greeks, his most recent book from 2012, is more of humerous nature. Three of his publications, namely Phryne (name of a famous Greek courtesan) from 2000, Thirasia (a Greek island) from 1997 and Andromeda (name of a Greek mythologic character and a star-constellation) from 1980 are considered to be a trilogy, of which each one deals with a different aspect of men's self-caused destruction. In each of the books, Varos tells the story of a contemporary man, who is e.g. in Phryne searching for satisfaction in small or large 'personal revolutions', while in Therasia he is searching it in hopes and politics. Finally Andromeda is about his own imagination.

Parts of his work were also used by the Greek composer Giannis Markopoulos in his CD “Electric Theseus”, “Unities”, “Daring Communications”, “50 Years Giannis Markolpoulos” and even performed by Pavlos Sidiropoylos and the Group Νέοι Επιβάτες (“Young Passengers“) in the ancient theater Herodion in Athens. Also the rock group Vox used some of his texts as lyrics for their third CD.

Another of his publications is Painting with a Camera from 2005, which contains photographs of Varos with various topics, such as sea- and landscapes, flowers, people and other.

Source(s):

• http://en.wikipedia.org
• http://el.wikipedia.org
• http://www.poiein.gr
• http://www.varos.gr