Calypso and Nausicaa

Being a single mother of three and always on the breadline, Ata Kandó didn’t want her children to miss out on traveling to beautiful places during their holidays. The solution was to combine her work with the children’s holidays.

They hitch-hiked from Amsterdam to Paestum in Italy where old Greek temples can be found. Tom would play Ulysses and his twin sisters, Juliette and Madeleine enacted various other Homer characters like Calypso, Nausicaa, Palace Athena, even Hermes the messenger.

Photo-shoots always happened near sunrise or sunset when the light was low so the children had plenty of time to enjoy their holidays. But while the kids were playing on the beach, mother was busy preparing improvised costumes and choosing  nearby locations for the next day’s shooting. The finished dummy of Calypso and Nausicaa had been lying on the shelf for almost half a century until finally it got published in 2004 by publishing house De Verbeelding to great acclaim and quickly sold out. A 2nd print is due.