Return to Durrës

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“The next day, I took my bicycle and camera and I left for the far northern edge of Durrës, near Porto Romano...’" A photo-report by Lasien Vojo

Return
“Every summer, for 14 years, I have returned to Durrës to see my family. Every time, going back there is a moment of anticipation and joy. I can hardly describe the emotion of seeing the town appearing from the sea, sensing the excitement of the other people on the ferry, and finally feeling home after 12 long months.”
Nostalgia
“It is hard to express in writing the beauty of the ancient streets in the town centre, the smell of the harbour, the noises and voices in the market behind the train station. Every time, I realise how much I missed the traffic, the smells, the sea. Every time, I wonder how my life would have been if I had stayed and grown up in Albania.”
Abuses
“Over the last two years, my town has changed – it is no longer recognisable, no longer mine. It belongs to the big estate builders and corrupt politicians, slave to the abusive construction. Dirty and dusty, Durrës covers itself in ridicule, awkwardly attempting to copy a Western lifestyle of expensive cars, luxury bars, and shallow ostentatious richness."
The others
"There is, though, a parallel world: thousands of poor families from the neighbouring countryside and the northern mountains, extreme unemployment rates, lack of public services, and pollution.”
Smells
“One night last August, I was in my fifth-floor apartment with my Italian girlfriend. To find some relief from the heat, we opened the windows. The summer dust from the unpaved roads came in along with a stinging smell of burnt plastic. The town seemed to have caught fire, but nobody appeared to notice. The next day, when I asked my uncle about it, I learnt it was normal.”
The cloud
“In the especially hot nights, when the wind blows from the sea, Durrës is wrapped in an incredible toxic cloud coming from the municipality landfill, where large piles of waste perpetually burn, day and night.”
Bicycle
“The next day, I took my camera and I rode my bike to the far northern edge of Durrës, near Porto Romano, an area already strongly contaminated by the ruins of a former chemical plant.”
Ghosts
“As the landscape around me became increasingly spectral and bleak, breathing became difficult because of the pungent cloud hovering ahead of me. Along the road leading to the landfill, I saw isolated houses, cows pasturing in the void, and a small village, with the ironic name of 'Youthville', where the toxic fumes blow stronger.”* Lasien Vojo is a university student living in Florence. Born in Durrës, Albania, he moved to Italy with his family in 1996.