Meet the Author: Douglas Demetrios Lyttle

An absolutely unique book on the Holy Mountain

Professor Douglas Lyttle made twenty-two extended visits to the Greek Monastic Republic of Mt. Athos, the Holy Mountain, between 1972 and 1998, during which he built a file of approximately 50,000 photographs from which illustrations were selected to weave, in Miracle on the Monastery Mountain, the fascinating story of its unanticipated and marvelous reawakening and renewal- both physical and spiritual. 

His first visit to the Mt. Athos region was motivated largely by curiosity, a desire to make photographs of unusual and interesting buildings and a lifestyle quite foreign to westerners.  Within four days, he knew he would have a close and continuing involvement with the Holy Mountain and its wonderful people, and over more than a quarter century, he sought to learn and document not only the unique aspects of the place, but also the life, form and essence of Christian Orthodox monasticism.  Professor Lyttle embraced Orthodoxy in 1997, becoming Douglas Demetrios Lyttle. 

A graduate of the University of Michigan, the author began his professional life as a pharmaceutical chemist with Merck and Co. and then the Upjohn Co. in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  In 1960 he made his life-long avocation his full time business when he opened a custom photographic studio, specializing in portraiture, advertising illustration and architectural photography. After 10 successful years, an advertisement for a teaching position in the prestigious School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology lured him to close his studio and move to Rochester, NY. During the 13 years he taught photography, he spent summers and a sabbatical leave doing freelance photography in Europe, the scope of which he broadened after retirement in 1983. Slowly Greece became his primary interest.

His honors include the Master of Photography degree from the Professional Photographers of America, membership of the American Society of Photographers. At RIT he earned the rank of Full Professor, is now Professor Emeritus. His work has been published and is owned by collectors and several galleries. It is also included in the permanent collection of the American Society of Photographers.

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All photos and text on this site © Douglas Demetrios Lyttle