Dynasty Marubi

In the exhibition Dynasty Marubi – A hundred years of Albanian studio photography, the Marubi National Museum of Photography is showing a selection of photos from the archive (1856-1959) which was previously shown in the homonymous exhibition opened at the Foam Museum of Photography, Amsterdam in 2016. Three generations of photographers made studio portraits of a wide variety of people, ranging from the urban bourgeoisie to lower classes, from the Ottoman emperor to King Zog, from prisoners to famous actors and painters.

In about 1850, not long after the invention of photography, the Italian Pietro Marubbi arrived in Shkodër. There he started the first photography studio in the region, using the wet collodion process. After Pietro’s death his assistant Kel adopted the same surname, as a tribute to him. He ran the studio himself and eventually passed it on to his son Gegë.

The extensive collection of 150,000 glass negatives of the Marubi dynasty is interesting from an historical, sociological, cultural and anthropological as well as artistic point of view. Events in the turbulent history of Albania (from Ottoman times to the communist period), social rituals, folkloric costumes and sociologically interesting group portraits. The exhibition is an introduction to the rich photographic history of an isolated European country by that time.

The exhibition includes modern reproductions and projections of scanned glass negatives. There are not many vintage prints in the collection of the Marubi National Museum of Photography. They were sold by the Marubis and can still be found in the homes of many Albanian families. In the exhibition you can read more about the history of Albania, the Marubi studio and the photographic procedure.