Surprises from an archive

On Kolë Idromeno’s Photographic Heritage

Abstract

This article aims to bring to light the particularly fortuitous fact that a large portion of Kolë Idromeno’s photographic oeuvre is housed in the physical archive of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and the Study of Art (IAKSA). This information has perhaps not become as widely known as it should be within the current research community, and this lack of awareness has also prevented the archive from being accessed broadly, by anyone with an interest in the subject. There are limited opportunities to directly access physical works in the archive, an understandable limitation imposed by the standards of conservation. Aiming to eliminate these barriers to access, IAKSA has recently begun a project to digitize this archive—which includes both negatives and printed photographs by Kolë Idromeno—and create an online platform to facilitate free access to the works.