Early Photography in Albania The Photographic Legacy of Kol Idromeno
Abstract
Kol Idromeno, (1860-1939) was one of the foremost artists of AlbanianRenaissance art. Idromeno was a distinguished painter, architect, photographer, scenographer, sculptor, artisan etc. He is mostly known as a painter and architect. His achievements in these two fields have overshadowed somehow his also remarkable efforts in other arts. Especially his photographic heritage is of particular interest. He began his photographic activity in 1886 after he attended at the Marubbi studio, which was the first photographic studio in Albania. Idromeno started his career as a photographer, working with the wet collodion process. By 1899 Idromeno had switched to the dry gelatin plates.The main body of his photographic work is preserved in the archives of QSA (Qendra e Studimeve Albanologjike – Center for Albanological Studies ) in Tirana. There are 1285 glass negatives in this archive. There are about 150 more negatives in the Marubi National Museum of Photography in Shkodra. Portraits and group portraits are the most numerous among all other genres. These portraits represent an important exposé of Albanian society between the 19th and 20th centuries. Men, women, children, officials, aristocrats, highlanders, soldiers, merchants, priests, lay people, they all go through the photographer‘s lens. The photography of architecture, streets and urban ensembles is especially dear to Idromeno. Being also an architect, architecture would be one of the favorite subjects. In the historic photography context, there are dozens of photographs representing many sorts of soldiers, officers, and armies. Idromeno lived in a very turbulent period of Albanian history. The Albanian struggle for independence, the Balkan Wars, and the First World War. Artistic effort can be observed in all genres of his photography. Being also a painter he used the correlation painting-photography primarily to the advantage of the first. However, some of the photographs used as a preparatory material for painting, reveal today genuine examples of fine art photography.
Keywords: Visual art, art history, photography, ethnography, Albanology.
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