Apr. 14 – “I don’t pretend, I don’t expect to change the world with photography. But I still believe that bad photographs make the world a little darker,” says Ferdinando Scianna who will arrive in Tirana Thursday, April 17. His photographs will be on display in the Mother Teresa Hall of the Palace of Culture (Skenderbej Square). The famous Sicilian photographer will inaugurate “Days of Italian photography,” a project born from the collaboration between the Italian Institute of Culture and EJAlbum, exclusive distributor for Album Epoca and Photosì in Albania. The initiative offers a series of meetings with famous Italian photographers, and presents their work through documentaries and debates. In spite of the strong bond between the two countries in the field of photography – especially thanks to the figure of Pietro Marubi, considered the father of Albanian photography – in recent years initiatives dedicated to Italian contemporary photography have been sporadic. This project thus aims to give visibility to photography and its most famous representatives. Scianna will open the event in virtue of his special bond with Albania: the photographer was one of the first tourists to visit the country, and he is author of a 1984 photo-report on Albania, available today on the website of Magnum Agency. The event will open at 6 pm with the screening of an Italian documentary (subtitles in Albanian), followed by a brief presentation of the artist by Professor Albes Fusha. Scianna will then speak to the public about his life and work. Finally, a roundtable with Albanian photographers will draw the first day of “Days of Italian photography” to a close.
