Faces of Albania: Stories in Black and White

I wanted to use this recent trip through Albania as an opportunity to slow down and photograph people in a more honest, observational way focusing less on scenes, and more on individual presence.

Using the vintage inspired Fujifilm X-Pro1 paired with the compact TTArtisan 28mm f/2.0, I chose to shoot entirely in black and white. This helped remove the distraction of colour and placed emphasis on expression, texture, and atmosphere.

Albania is full of character, from quiet moments in cafés to weathered faces on busy streets. I found that monochrome felt like the most natural way to reflect that sense of raw humanity and give things a timeless feeling.

This collection brings together ten portraits that I believe hint at a larger and much deeper story beyond the image.

1. Two Lives, One Window

In this image two women appear to share a moment at the window of a small tobacconist. One inside, settled into her familiar space, the other on the street. Their exchange inspired me to take a quick image. It seemed like the kind of conversation that belongs to people who know the rhythm of the neighbourhood well.

Photographed discreetly from the hip and I was roaming the side streets for Gjirokastër, nothing about the scene is performed. The shopfront almost disappears leaving only the connection between the two ladies.

2. The Goat Farmer

As we travelled towards the mountains, a lone goat farmer rests on a roadside barrier, elbows on his knees, herding stick across his lap. His posture suggested it was a pause rather than a break. This was obviously a natural rhythm that repeats itself day after day. His goats grazed freely across the open land at the side of the road, a scene that we had seen often in Albania.

A wave and a smile bridged the language gap between us, and he remained at ease just watching as we took photos of his goats jumping and playing in the plants, unbothered by the camera. In monochrome, the weathering of his face and the openness of the land become the centre of the image. It’s grounded, steady, and shaped by years outdoors.

3. A Slower Pace

One of my favorite images from the trip, and just the scene I was hoping for happened so quickly. We had entered a rough track that led us off road. As we came around a corner, we were greeted to a side‑saddle donkey rider. The gentleman descending a gravel track with a scythe resting casually in his hands. He turned to us with a broad smile, completely at ease in a scene that feels untouched by time.

The planned detour into the hills was a way of capturing and experiencing rural life although the road was tougher than expected. For a moment, I misread his raised hand as a request not to take the photo, but his warmth suggested the opposite. The encounter lasted seconds, yet it lingered long after, a reminder that the best moments often appear when plans fall away and the road becomes uncertain.

4. Lost in Thought

This solitary man sat on a castle wall in a wide valley, mountains rising softly behind him. Dressed in a suit and holding a mobile phone, he seems entirely absorbed in a private moment, but remove the phone, and the scene could belong to another decade.

His stillness invites questions. He isn’t waiting or rushing, simply paused yet captured without his awareness as I snapped the shot from the hip.

5. The Shepard’s Road

This image captures a shepherd as he walks his flock along a narrow country lane. I pulled the camera off my lap whilst slowing the car and was able to take an image where he meets the camera with a steady, unbothered gaze. For him, this route is routine; for us, it was a fleeting interruption.

The photograph happened in an instant, and by chance, the focus landed perfectly thanks to my pre focusing of the manual lens. What stays with me is the reversal of perspective, to us he was a scene and yet to him, we were the unusual element on a road shaped more by animals than traffic.

6. Along For The Ride

A man rides through the side streets of Shkodër with a young child perched on the front of his motorbike. The child spots the camera immediately, curious and alert, while the rider stays focused on the road.

Nothing about the moment is staged

This image not posed for, simply part of the everyday rhythm of the quieter backstreets, ordinary, familiar, and quietly revealing. In black and white, the scene becomes less about time and more about the relationship between the two figures passing briefly through the frame.

7. The Stonemason

An elderly craftsman leans over a rough block of stone, shaping its early form with steady, practiced movements. At one point he glances up over his glasses, a brief acknowledgement before returning to his work.

We spoke in simple terms despite the language barrier, conversation and craft unfolding side by side. The photograph captures not the finished piece, but the moment where potential still outweighs form: texture, concentration, and the quiet rhythm of creation.

8. The Passing Wave

A man walks a donkey along a rural path, moving at an unhurried pace through open countryside. He has just lowered his arm from a wave, a small gesture that becomes the human anchor of the scene.

The donkey lingers on the hedgerow, slowing their progress in a way that feels entirely natural. In monochrome, the landscape reduces to layers of tone, with the donkey in the foreground and the man receding gently into the distance. The moment is simple, but full of quiet movement.

9. The Weekly Catch-Up

Two elderly women sit on a bench, absorbed in conversation. Their posture and expressions suggest a routine they’ve repeated countless times, a familiar pause in the day.

Unaware of the camera, they lean into each other with ease. The surrounding space falls away, leaving only the bond between them. It’s a portrait of companionship, shaped not by the topic of their conversation but by the comfort of sharing it.

10. Dust and Distance

A lone rider sits astride a motorbike in the open hills, framed by distant mountains and a faint road cutting through the land. The encounter is brief, marked by a look that could be curiosity or indifference.

Out here, the modern world thins quickly. Even the bike feels temporary against the scale of the landscape. In black and white, the scene becomes elemental, rider, road, mountains, distance, a moment held still by the weight of the land around it.