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Communist Albania was unlike any other European nation. It was a "hermit state" ruled by a dictator, Enver Hoxha, who presided over a repressive Stalinist regime. When John Watkins visited Albania in the late 1980s, he saw peasants toiling in the fields and enormous state-owned factories scarred the landscape.
In 1991, the old regime was overthrown. Hoxha's statues were pulled down and his books burned. But reminders of his Albania were everywhere: in the monotonous apartment blocks and derelict factories; in the old collective farms and irrigation channels; in the thousands of bunkers that still dotted the landscape. But how much deeper did Hoxha's influence go? What marks had he left on the political system and on the nation's psyche?
To answer these questions, the author returned to the places he had visited in the 1980s. He started in Shkodër and travelled south through Durrës and Tirana to Sarandë. He had taken photos on those first tours. He wanted to find the exact spots where he had taken them, so he could use them as a barometer of change.
But the real power of the images lay not in their evocation of the past, but in the connections they allowed him to make in the present. Through the photos, he was able to talk to Albanians from different generations and walks of life. For those born after 1991, they were revelatory, images of a world they knew little about. For older people, they were a key that unlocked memories, both good and bad.
These exchanges, togeth...
In 1991, the old regime was overthrown. Hoxha's statues were pulled down and his books burned. But reminders of his Albania were everywhere: in the monotonous apartment blocks and derelict factories; in the old collective farms and irrigation channels; in the thousands of bunkers that still dotted the landscape. But how much deeper did Hoxha's influence go? What marks had he left on the political system and on the nation's psyche?
To answer these questions, the author returned to the places he had visited in the 1980s. He started in Shkodër and travelled south through Durrës and Tirana to Sarandë. He had taken photos on those first tours. He wanted to find the exact spots where he had taken them, so he could use them as a barometer of change.
But the real power of the images lay not in their evocation of the past, but in the connections they allowed him to make in the present. Through the photos, he was able to talk to Albanians from different generations and walks of life. For those born after 1991, they were revelatory, images of a world they knew little about. For older people, they were a key that unlocked memories, both good and bad.
These exchanges, togeth...