ABOUT MEMORYLAND
Prishtina: MemoryLand is a photo-book I’ve decided to do as a gift for my close friends. Prishtina’s a small city, and every time I go for a walk I’m reminded of different events in various locations. It’s hard to escape the memories–be it good, or bad–in such a tiny town. Last September I was walking home from Sunny Hill (a neighborhood in PR) and felt tired of constantly reminiscing the moments I shared with the people I’d began growing apart from. So I decided to do something interesting with all these treasured memories instead of just letting them haunt my thoughts in a way. Living in Kosovo can be tough, considering our visa situation. Not being allowed to travel feels like being in prison. Having lived in Prishtina for all eighteen years of my life, there’s not much I haven’t seen yet. I’ve hung out with plenty of people in several parts of the city; and seen almost every interesting view Prishtina has to offer. Now, when I decide to walk instead of taking a cab, the city feels like a dry land full of memories (hence the title). That’s one of the reasons I actually take a cab – so I can escape this sentiment of feeling trapped.
While shooting for this book, I used a smaller lens–and avoided broad shots–so everything would seem more compact. With that, I wanted to express how trapped I feel, and how closed in the world feels from here.
What makes this book special is the fact that I did photography, wrote a poem, and wrote something in Albanian for the first time. I decided to do the three of these concepts as a way to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself. I love doing photography, I love writing poems, and I’ve always wanted to see if I can express myself accurately when writing in my native language.
There’s 35 people this book was exclusively made for. These 35 people have helped make my life hella’ adventurous, spontaneous, and fun. At hard times, these people helped make my life more bearable. However, I’ve had a break out with the 35 of them, at least once. There’s a few people in that list, that I have yet to reconcile with. I might give the book to them myself, anyways. Or if they’re still holding a grudge I’ll just have another friend give it to them. After all, I did this cause I wanted to spark some unity again. Primarily, I did this in hopes of making all these 35 people happy. I hope they are happy, and enjoy seeing these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.