Albanie, un voyage photographique

The first retrospective of Albanian photography from 1858 to 1945. Presenting more than 10 albanian photographers.Albania remains largely unrepresented in the global history of photography. Not a single name or reference attests to the many talented artists it has counted in the ␣eld. Even the exemplary Marubi dynasty is little-known. And yet few countries can boast of having nurtured so many great photographers. From the dawn of photography, when Albania was still a part of the Ottoman Empire, to the establishment of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime in 1946 in the wake of the Second World War, photography ␣our- ished in Albania. It is this golden age, from 1858 and the ␣rst Albanian photograph, to the end of the 1940s, which we will retrace in these pages. Albania possesses a photo- graphic legacy which, though unique among the Balkans, has gone unnoticed both inside and outside its borders. Most images presented in this book have never before been the subject of exhibition or publication.The photographs gathered here cover a wide range of themes: scenes from eve- ryday life, country and urban landscapes, religious ceremonies, portraits of Albanian insurgents, persons both known and unknown.