The handwritten album, titled ‘Kazantzakis in Crete – Cazantzakis en Crète’, is authored by photographer Kostas Koutoulakis. The cover additionally features the inscription ‘Photos Costas Coutoulakis – Athenes’ alongside the date 1945.

The album comprises five carefully chosen photographs portraying Nikos Kazantzakis during the Central Committee for the Verification of Atrocities mission to Crete in the summer of that year. Each photograph is accompanied by handwritten captions penned by the photographer.

The Committee was comprised of university professors Ioannis Kalitsounakis and Yannis Kakridis, alongside Kostas Koutoulakis as the photographer, who were joined by Nikos Kazantzakis. Together, they embarked on a tour of Crete, spanning from Chania in the west to the Toplou Monastery on the island's eastern boundary. Their mission was to document atrocities perpetrated by the Axis occupying forces during the years 1941 – 1945.

The photographs in the album offer vivid glimpses into the daily activities of the mission, including scenes of documenting notes on Nazi atrocities in Ano Meros, Amari and Agia, Chania.

However, this album was not presented to Nikos Kazantzakis in 1945; rather, it was delivered eleven years later, as indicated by the cover letter sent by Kostas Koutoulakis to the author on 1^st July 1956.

In particular, Koutoulakis mentions sending Kazantzakis ‘a small album with a few photos that I took’. The letter was dispatched from Kritsa, Lassithi, the hometown of the photographer. Around that time, the filming of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel ‘Christ Recrucified’ had commenced, adapted into Jules Dassin's film ‘Celui qui doit mourir’, featuring Melina Mercouri. Koutoulakis would go on to serve as the photographer for the film production.