The Marubi Museum is pleased to invite you to Jutta Benzenberg's solo exhibition. Her photographs and stories form a biography of Albania with her eyes.

At the same time, they are a mirror of her own biography and bear witness to the extensive career of one of Albania's most active photographers.

Portraits that give a glimpse into the soul of the country

I have been photographing forgotten people in Albania since 1991. Most Albanians wanted to leave their country. A man who worked as a fisherman once said to me: "You are from Germany and I tell you that if Merkel would allow it, Albania would be an empty ghost country tomorrow." How sad when you consider what wonderful people are here live, hard working, honest, warm and struggling to survive every day. This project is exactly what I am looking for. And I am happy that I can show Albania with the planned exhibitions in a way that is not known in the rest of Europe, with portraits that allow a glimpse into the soul of the country. It is very exciting for me to travel to Germany to portray those living in the shadow of wealth. I am very curious to get to know the part of my old home that is foreign to me, because I only visited East Germany once, in 1974. How will people react? How will the talks be? What problems will I find here?

Biography of Jutta Benzenberg

I studied photography at the State Academy for Photo Design in Munich and then worked as a photographer for various magazines and theaters. In 1991 I traveled through Albania for the first time together with Ardian Klosi, an Albanian writer, to document this turbulent and troubled time and to capture a portrait of Albanians and the Albanian landscape. After further trips to Albania, Ardian Klosi and I published a book together in Salzburg in 1993, entitled "Albanisches Survival-Albanian Survival". Our second book together is "Bukuri e rëndë - Sombre Beauty", which was published in 2004 by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia in Tirana. I have exhibited the photographs from this book at the Biennial Arts Festival in Tirana, Think Pink in Pristina (Kosovo) and at the Goethe Institutes in Thessaloniki and Athens, among others. My recent solo and group exhibitions have been in Romania, Austria, Kosovo, Greece, Germany, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, USA and Latin America. From 2013 to 2014 I worked as an official photographer for the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. I currently live in Tirana.

Please read as well:

Goethe Institut - “German on the road”

Marubi National Museum of Photography