If you have met me, whether somewhere out in the world, or at home in the states, you have heard me go on about how much I love Albania, about how much I love the Balkans. I am fortunate enough to have been around this world. Albania is different.
Right now, in the summer of 2026, the country is going through a revolution.
Since late May, Albanians have been protesting after a 1.4 billion euro luxury resort development project on Sazan Island by Donald Trump’s billionaire son in law Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump advanced- despite no public hearings made by the government, lack of transparency, public disapproval, and Sazan Island & Vjosë-Nartë Delta being protected areas. Now, the land that belongs to the Albanian people is bulldozed in front of the locals faces, to be taken over by private investors, airports, and luxury stays only accessible to the world’s wealthiest.
Yet this revolution is not about a luxury resort, despite American media outlets solely focusing on Kushner’s development. This has sparked the larger revolution against Prime Minister Edi Rama, the 35+ years of government corruption, and the system as a whole.
The citizens are making four official demands through the revolution: government resignation, a formation of a new technical government, abolition of abusive laws and the Zvernec project, and free and fair elections.
I have been in Tirana for almost a month now. I have learned more about this country, and the citizen’s struggles in these weeks than I have anywhere else. I have listened to protesters make speech after speech, night after night, with so much passion and anger in their voices that it transcends the language barrier between us. I have sat on my friend’s balconies listening to stories of these hardships brought on them from their childhoods until now.
Every night, I walk down the boulevard towards Skanderbeg Square surrounded by chants of ‘Rama jepe doreheqjen’ (Rama, resign), and ‘Ju Erdhi Fundi’(your time is up). “The government didn’t expect this [ongoing protests] to happen, nobody expected this to happen” Emian says to me.
You see it all around you. You feel it all around you. I hope to convey how the revolution and these changing times manifest into everyday life in Tirana, and Albania as a whole through my photographs. But with all the words and photographs I could write and create, you wouldn’t be able to understand it until you’ve experienced it.
I am hopeful for a different Albania in the very near future. These weeks here have inspired me in ways that I did not expect. I will bring this inspiration and dedication to working for a better future back home to the United States.
