Golden age of Albanian photography featured in Zagreb

TIRANA, August 14 – The Golden Age of the Albanian Photography, an exhibition tracing Albanian photography from 1858 to 1945 through the renowned Marubi dynasty and the rhapsodes of light is being featured at the Gallery of Photoclub Zagreb, Croatia. The exhibition presented by Lo࣠Chauvin, journalist and expert in Albanian historic photography and Christian Raby, a professor of photography at the University of Chicago in Paris will remain open until 9 September.
For almost 20 years, Lo࣠Chauvin and Christian Raby have travelled through Albania, visiting private and public collections in the search of forgotten talented artists. They have undertaken the unique and very important work of identifying, digitalizing where possible and bringing to light the oeuvres of Albania’s first photographers in their “Albania, a photographic journey” book.
From the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime in 1946, in the wake of the Second World War, photography flourished in Albania. “Albania possesses a photographic legacy which, though unique among the Balkans, has gone unnoticed both inside and outside its border”.
The authors explore the transformation of Albanian identity from the end of the Ottoman period to the end of the Second World War, providing unique testimonies of the progressive westernization of the country and the emergence of Albanian European identity.
The Enver Hoxha regime closed the country to outsiders, concealing the work of Albanian photographic pioneers from historical and expert notice. This book is a step towards achieving their recognition.
The “Golden Age of Albanian photography” exhibition has previously shown in the Bruxelles Botanic Museum in 2011 and the Maison Europꦮne de la Photographie in Parisin 2012.
The work of Lo࣠Chauvin and Christian Raby has highlighted that the remaining public and private collections of Albanian photography are under threat of destruction. Even the well-known Marubi Fund in Shkodra, that was audited through an UNESCO programme in 1994 and received private funding for digitalization, is today in distress and its collections are at risk.
It is really important to raise awareness of this legacy and unique testimony to the evolution of Albanian identity. This book recounts an important shift in European history in the first half of the 20th Century, which is particularly pertinent in regard to prospective Albanian European integration.
Albanian photography started with Pietro Marubi, an Italian emigrant fleeing political repression from his country. He opened Albania’s first photography studio in 1858. Three generations of Marubis will follow in his footsteps. For about a century, the Marubi family have amassed more than 120,000 negatives. Several dozens of photographers also worked in Albania during the end of the 19th and 20th centuries. The selection of pictures reveal the political, social, cultural and religious diversity of the country. Photographer Pjeter Marubi is the founder of the Marubi Photo Collection (Fototeka Marubi) in the northern city of Shkodra comprising over 150,000 photos, many of which are of great historical, artistic and cultural significance. The collection was compiled by three generations of photographers.