Once a southern province of the ancient kingdom of Illyria, of which Shkodra was the capital, Albania would go on to forge one of Europe's most refined cultures.
Hellenized after Philip of Macedon's conquest, the region later became a Roman province and was Christianized early on. It experienced an influx of Slavs in the sixth and seventh centuries, was ruled over by the Republic of Venice in the fifteenth century, and then, starting in 1479, spent four hundred years as part of the Ottoman Empire.
These complex influences are a great asset to this small country of about three million inhabitants, which declared its independence in 1912.
The nineteenth century ushered in a heroic era of national pride and with it came the birth of photography. Should a link be made between the awakening of Albania's national identity and the singular attraction Albanian artists felt for this new form of expression ?
Loïc Chauvin and Christian Raby leave the question open as they highlight this Balkan country's extraordinary photographic heritage.
Luc Lefort
