“Albanian Survival” was Jutta Benzenberg’s first book that dealt with Albanian themes. It was published in Salzburg, Austria in 1993. The photographs were shot between 1991-1992, the time immediately following the collapse of the communist dictatorship. Many people lived in extreme poverty, they had lost their orientation. Hundreds of thousands escaped the country by land and by sea. Benzenberg captured the pervasive air of hopelessness and depression- she exposed the deep wounds caused by a communist regime which had oppressed its citizens for almost half a century.
Of the many photographs in this book, depicted are the capital city of Tirana, Eastern cities of Durres and Shkodra and the Southern city of Korca. There are photographs from the remote mountain region of Dukajgin as well as from internment villages, prisons and mines.