What Remains

Photographs as Silent Witnesses of Rupture, Loss, and Renewal

The 1990s marked one of the most dramatic turning points in Albania’s history, a decade in which nearly half a century of rigid order gave way to the disorienting promises of freedom.
It was in this crucible of transformation that my photographic work in Albania began. For over a decade, I kept a close watch, building an archive that was both deeply personal and historically significant.

But in 2007, a fire devastated our home and destroyed my negatives from the 1990s. Only a few images survived, many scarred by smoke, stained by water, or partially burned.

The story could have ended there.
But in 2023, with renewed courage, I began to revisit the damaged negatives. Through scanning, arranging, and creating collages from the charred fragments, something new emerged: images that hover between photography and art, history and memory, testimony and dream.

In many ways, the 1990s are not yet over in Albania. It was the fastest-moving, most turbulent decade the country has ever experienced. Freedoms arrived suddenly, but so did instability, disillusionment, and trauma. Much of what was lived so intensely remains unprocessed, even as many of today’s challenges are rooted in that restless time.

Like the burned negatives, parts of this history are scarred, darkened or nearly erased.