It was a yard like all the others, surrounded by walls, with trees and bushes, from where you could see the door and window of the house, the stairs and a railing made of sticks. It was a courtyard also in the sense of a headquarters where the king, prince and nobleman could enter and stay, but also a shelter for the poor and the beggar. It was a courtyard that had the advantage of photographing with natural light.
Since the intensity of the light had to be regulated, that yard was covered with a cloth that softened the light, turning into a tent where it was beaten for a short time. For this reason, it resembled a "meeting tent", a meeting place for everyone, local and foreign, who came and entered there to meet themselves through Marubi.
Luçjan Bedeni, director of the "Marubi" National Museum of Photography in Shkodër, has been studying the beginnings of Marubi as a photography studio for years. The environment where it was placed, the exact time when it was taken up, the first photo that was taken and not only that, because photography is one of the arts with which we were contemporary with the world. Recently, the "Marubi" museum has opened a series of talks related to the Marubi dynasty. The location and activity of the first photographic studio set up by Pietro Marubi in Shkodër is still unknown. The year 1856 remains the date of the establishment of the studio in Shkodër. In the published texts we find written that the first studio equipped with necessary tools of the time was built during the years 1885-1890.
Bedeni himself, through the conversation "The meeting tent of a yard", brings his research-research about the Marubi. This research concerns the search for the first traces of the location of Pietro Marubi's studio and how he carried out the activity; where this studio was located, how big it was, who were the "models" or clients he photographed. Bedeni has selected several pictures, which have a connection with each other, for which he will also give an explanation. These meetings come after the workshop, "Then and now", which shed light on how Marubi's characters posed, how they dressed, what facial expressions they had, what other details we noticed in the composition of the image. The workshop "Then and now" took back the old tradition of photography in the Marubi studio, bringing it back with characters of our times, as authentic as those of Marubi.
UNERASED TRACES
The "Marubi" studio, according to Beden's study, included an environment of 5 x 7 m positioned in the northeast direction. Two-thirds of the building and the entire facade were made of glass, in order for light to enter in equal amounts, both from above and from the sides. The windows were covered with large meringue curtains, which moved according to the need for light. The first cameras they used were 30 x 40 cm French and German brands with cassettes for two negatives 26×31 and 21×27 cm. Photography with this camera was done in the shade, in nature. Later, the 18×24 and 13×18 cm apparatus, supported on wooden tripods, came into use. Bedeni notes that the photo studio "Marubi" did not produce only for the personal or family needs of citizens. Photographs of ethnographic, historical or geographic interest illustrated dozens of works by foreign authors for Albania, or were published in the form of postcards. "Her photographs are a rare treasure for historians, ethnographers, architects, urban planners, artists, etc.
Groups of patriots, flag bearers and insurgents, representatives of the Border Commission, delegates and politicians, men and women in city, village and mountain clothes, all pose in a Shkodran courtyard. The leaders of Mirdita who came to Shkodër on the occasion of the death of Bib Doda pose in the same courtyard with cobblestones and a wall of Kiri stones. From another angle, Marash Uci and Cali's sons also pose," he notes. He further notes that in these two photos we find the same scene, but with different photography angles. The characters pose separately and together in front of the photographer, who with his tripod fixed in one place only moves the angle of his lens in the courtyard. In one of the photos, the first one, the window is almost in profile, while in the second it is in the middle and opposite. "Behind the window we see the door that is repeated in two photos and then in the continuation of all the other images we find the corner of a staircase repeated. Also, if we get into the interior of these photographs, we feel the traces of the seasons from the clothing of the people as well as from the condition, presence or absence of the leaves of the trees. But from this we understand that the photographer has been using this yard for a long time, photographing characters, whom he places sometimes sitting and sometimes standing, sometimes leaning on a stone and sometimes on a pod", says Bedeni. According to him, each one of these photographs remains very interesting to analyze how the photographer transforms the yard into a scene where he improvises the shooting of his photographs. Looking at the photographs, apart from the subjects posing, we simultaneously look around the yard. "Among these images, the photo of Mati Kodheli is impressive, one of the rare ones found in the archive. This image remains special due to the fact that the intervention of the photographer who takes care of every detail is noticeable. From what is understood, the picture was taken on a cold day because the trees have lost their leaves. The photographer has taken care that the fence where the person will pose is as complete as possible with trees and roots taken from elsewhere. But the most interesting thing there is the relationship with light. On the left we see a gear mechanism, which above commands a canopy that softens the strong light and harsh contrasts, turning that courtyard from exterior to interior", Bedeni stops in his research. The selected images provide a reliable version of the context in which Marubi's first photographs were taken. They perhaps suggest that this whole story starts from a characteristic Shkodran courtyard, which was the scene where the various subjects came and posed/ Fatmira Nikolli, Gazeta Shqiptare.
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