The other side of communism, photos hidden by police, after 30 years are exhibited in Tirana.

The National Historic Museum today will open its gates at 18: 00, for a photo-exhibition titled “The other side of communism”. This rare exhibition has a incredible history. In May 1987, Dutch photojournalist Piet den Blanken, De Blanken, now in his 60s, visited communist Albania. “Albania was one of the most closed countries in Europe until 1990. The only way to photograph in Albania was to visit the country as a tourist with a group tour led by an Albanian guide,” says photographer Piet de Blanken as quoted by the exhibition’s organizers “The other side of communism”. So he followed the official group program. In this way, he tried to get another image of the country, an image that was not shown in the official group program. Despite the prohibition on contact between Albanians and foreign visitors and the ban on taking street photos, he managed to take many pictures of Albanians and their daily life under the communist regime. In addition, he was repeatedly brought back by the police. By the end of the trip, his films and stuff were seized. He had given his full shot of precautionary films to a group member, Johan Janse, which hid the movies in his luggage and took out the country thanks to him to see these photos here, today. Thirty years later, his pictures are back to Tirana, in The National Historic Museum. This photo exhibition is part of a travelling exhibition featuring several renowned Dutch photographers documenting the work they made in the Eastern Bloc. The 12 Dutch photographers were witnesses of historical moments, such as the emergence of the Polish trade union Solidarnosc in Gdansk in 1980, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Romanian revolution of 1989. The whole exhibition represents an unpredictable and multi-faceted view of the Eastern Bloc of that time. This exhibition brings together the historical importance of events from the broader perspective of Dutch journalism in the 1980s and 1990s. “The other side of Albanian communism”, supported by the Dutch embassy in Tirana. It will be open until 30 August.