TIRANA, Oct. 22 – Around 100 colour photographs and 5 minutes of rare footage taken by a French mission visiting Albania just after its independence as part of the “Archives of the Planet” project by French banker and philanthropists Albert Kahn will be touring in Albania’s main cities for one month. The Albania 1912 exhibition, an initiative by the French embassy in Albania and the Albanian Centre for Albanological studies brings the famous Albert Kahn collection of pictures taken in Albania during a mission by geographer Jean Brunhes and photographer August Leon. Inaugurated from Oct. 24 to 26 at the Millennium cinema in Tirana, the exhibition will travel to Albania’s main cities until November 22.
Ardian Marashi, the director of the Centre of Albanological Studies, described the exhibition as a “treasury the French embassy in Albania is offering to Albanians as a gift for the 100th anniversary of the independence.”
Albert Kahn mission to Albania
French banker and philanthropist, Albert Kahn (1860-1940) decided to devote his talents to international peace by promoting dialogue between all strata of French and international society. To this end, he created a number of institutions to promote global understanding and co-operation. Last but not least was the project, Archives of the Planet (Archives de la Plan鵥), an ambitious undertaking which sought to record human cultures around the world in black-and-white and colour photography and in film… To this end, he sent photographers and cinematographers to scour the “surface of the globe occupied and fashioned by man, as it appears at the beginning of the twentieth century.” Between 1909 and 1931, 72,000 autochromes and 170,000 metres of film footage were made by photographers and cinematographers in almost fifty countries. The Albert Kahn collection was and remains the most important assemblages of autochromes in the world.
The first mission which Professor Jean Brunhes (1869-1930) planned for the Archives of the Planet was to be to the Balkans. The mission to Albania itself took place in the autumn of 1913. Coming from Montenegro, Brunhes and L갮 arrived in the port of Durr쳠on or about 16 October 1913. This is, at any rate, the date of the first autochromes taken there. From Durr쳬 they proceeded over the Erzen river, under the protection of Essad Pasha Toptani (1864-1920) to Tirana where they spent two days. From Tirana, they returned to Durr쳠and sailed to Bar in Montenegro from where they continued their journey to Shkodra on 21 October 1913. Shkodra, which was the last Ottoman stronghold in the Balkans, had fallen to Montenegrin forces on 22 April 1913, and much of the town lay in ruins due to the fighting. The following day, 22 October 1913, the mission set off northwards to Rijeka Crnojevica and from there to Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro.
The art of Auguste L갮 is matchless in an age of upheaval. The spectacular autochromes of the Kahn collection – 97 early colour photographs of Albania and 94 of Kosova, of which a selection has been made and is being presented here for the first time – are unique in the history of Albanian and Balkan photography. They are the priceless jewels of Albert Kahn’s colourful dream, the archives of the planet, says Robert Elsie, a specialist in Albanian studies.
