The General Directorate of Archives (DPA) and Tirana’s Parks and Recreation Agency launched an open-air exhibition featuring rare 20th-century glass-negative photographs by Korça pioneers Vani Burda and Thimi Raci, showcasing daily life, urban landscapes and suburban portraits from the DPA Photo Library.

According to the DPA, around 10 thousand photographs belong to the Vani Burda and Thimi Raci fund, while the Photo Library of the General Directorate of Archives preserves a total of around 135 thousand original photographs.

This collection features roughly 41,000 photographs capturing the political, social, and cultural history of Albania and its people up to 1944. A second major collection of about 43,000 photographs from the Luce Institute documents the period of the fascist occupation.

Archival photographs do more than preserve history and art. They act as direct proof of Albanian life over time, holding the faces and events that shape our national memory.

Digitization of the DPA Photo Library speeds up public access and image downloads. It also protects these historic photographs in their original form for the future.

This exhibition at Rinia Park in Tirana opens up historical archives for everyone, showing how photography keeps Albania’s past alive. /j.p/p.s./