Oliviero Toscani in Albania

At the second meeting of the project “Days of Italian Photography in Tirana”, we made possible an encounter between photographers, artists and the wider Albanian public and another world-famous photographer, the artist Oliviero Toscani. These are some photographs from the event; you will find the official video in another blog post. Below we have excerpted a passage from the event’s opening speech, words from EJAlbum’s PR, Julinda Mbrica:

“For us at EJAlbum, even though we have by now created a tradition in organizing these activities, each time is nonetheless special, and today I feel a little proud but also somewhat frightened by the scale this initiative has now taken — an initiative begun simply out of our desire to bring to Albania the best photography in the world, in all its forms.

Oliviero Toscani is a myth for all of us who work in art, and for me, who work in the advertising sector, even more so, because in that sector we not only grew up with his work, but in a way we often have to measure ourselves against it. In a sense it is also a challenge. And here we are today, where it falls to me precisely to present, before our clients at EJAlbum and before all of you present here today, the second stage of a project which, thanks also to the work of a wonderful staff, almost all of them volunteers, and thanks to the collaboration with an important institution and, allow me, a wonderful staff as well, such as the Italian Cultural Institute, manages to do something that I believe will remain among the most beautiful projects I have personally directed, but which I also believe must be, for you, among the most interesting.

The idea at the heart of these meetings is for them to be as useful as possible for our photographers, but also as democratic as possible. That is why we have not sent out beautiful invitations to VIPs, nor held receptions or parties in some chic venue. As a company we have no other aim in holding these meetings than the sharing of experience — experience that is indispensable for growing all of us professionally. And because we as a company believe blindly in the added value of art. And we believe blindly in photography, in its precious role in documenting what Toscani calls, better than anyone: the conditions of the human race.

Besides what I emphasized above, I have another, somewhat personal reason for insisting that Oliviero be among us today, one connected to this book I hold in my hands. Among the best books on the tragedy of half of the Albanian people, the war in Kosovo and the exodus of refugees that came with it. At that time I worked as a psychologist for Handicap International and I confronted that drama personally, something that has kept me forever bound to it so as not to forget that period. And that is why I want to quote you something from Toscani’s words in the book’s preface — words that describe precisely the philosophy of his work and life and that, for me, are a quotation I return to from time to time:

“Art is nothing other than a representation of extreme human states. Through art we have learned that there is a beauty even in what we would never want to see — indeed, that beauty draws us in almost pathologically: crucifixions, battles, massacres, death, beheading, deviant sexuality are the main subjects of ancient painting. We contemplate them, contemplating beauty. Photographs are nothing but an accumulation of faces, landscapes, objects: if they speak of tragedy, better to take them down than to look at them with the attention we devote to ancient painting, so that even that aesthetic emotion we still need may be fulfilled, all the same.”

We entrusted the presentation of the guest photographer to Armando Babani, because we think there is a coherence in his work of decades as a photojournalist in search of truth, and above all he is the Albanian photographer who, more than anyone, uses photography not only to document reality, but, like Toscani, uses it for what it truly is: a mediator, a means of communication. And to make us, like Toscani, see clearly what we hide from our eyes every day in our reality.
And I want to thank all of You who have come here today, our wonderful clients, the Italian Cultural Institute and especially Oliviero Toscani for this precious gift he has given us.

Thank you.