Yanaki Manaki

Giannakis (Ioannis) Manakis (Aromanian: Ianachia Manachia, Greek: Γιαννάκης Μανάκης, 1878–1954) was a pioneering photographer and cinematographer, who, together with his brother, Miltos, are considered the “Lumier brothers of the Balkans”.

He born in Avdella, Grevena, a Vlach village in Pindos (Ottoman Empire - today Greece). Attended the high school of Monastir (present-day Bitola), where he received a diploma as a teacher and painter (tracery/calligraphy). In 1898 he opened his first photography studio in Ioannina, while also working as a teacher. In 1904, the brothers moved to Monastir, where their studio became famous throughout the Balkans. In 1905, during a trip to London, he bought a Bioscope camera (serial number 300). With it, they shot the first film in the Balkans, “The Weavers,” starring their 114-year-old grandmother. They were official photographers of the Ottoman Sultan and the King of Yugoslavia, and in 1906 they won a gold medal at a world exhibition in Romania.