The project is currently exhibited in Tirana at the hbs gallery on SKANDERBEG Square. 

What Remains

Photographs as Silent Witnesses of Rupture, Loss, and Renewal

Between 1991 and 2006, I documented life in Albania, a time of profound upheaval, marked by hope, pain, and a society in transition. Many of the people I met lived between fear, poverty, and political uncertainty.

My work was created in black and white, on analog film. But in 2006, a fire destroyed 90% of my negatives. Thousands of images turned to ash, a loss that was not only material, but deeply personal.

Only years later did I find the strength to face the burnt negatives again. Scanning them became a liberating process: from destruction, something new emerged. The damaged images began to speak a different, deeper language – full of dignity, vulnerability, and quiet strength.

Through collaboration with artists and trusted companions, I learned to let go and see differently. In collage, I brought together images from different times forming new narratives, new relationships.

Today, these works are more than memory: they are an expression of resilience, a personal path through pain and loss  and an attempt to make the invisible visible.

The Making of the Collages

After the devastating fire in 2006 that destroyed over 90% of my negatives from Albania, I couldn’t face the remaining material for a long time. The few surviving films were damaged, burnt, stained, warped and too painful to look at.

Only years later, encouraged by my Curator I began scanning the fragments. What started as an act of archiving became a deeply personal and creative process. As I went through the damaged images, I stopped trying to reconstruct the past and began to shape something new from it.

The collages emerged naturally: I brought together people I had photographed in different places and at different times. Once placed side by side, new narratives and relationships developed.

By letting go of the usual rules of photography, I allowed intuition and emotion to guide me. The traces of fire, water, and time were not hidden, they became part of the story.

These collages are not reconstructions of what was lost but transformations: turning destruction into a space for new meaning where memory, time, and personal experience merge.