David Galjaard - Congresco, [special edition with original signed numbered print] - 2012

An exceptional, unique deluxe copy, unmatched anywhere on the Internet, is accompanied by an original photograph sized 24 cm x 30 cm, signed and stamped by the photographer. This book by David Galjaard is referenced in Photobook by Parr & Badger, Volume III, page 210, and it won the Best Book Award at Paris Photo 2012 for the first edition of the prize. 168 pages, as well as 6 booklets of texts by various authors inserted into the bookbinding (36 additional pages measuring 22 cm by 15 cm). 62 full-page color photographs, English texts by Slavenka Drakulić and Jaap Scholten, hardcover with red color-dust jacket titled on the front cover and back; brown cardboard slipcase with the title and with locking rivets.

Fearing a foreign attack, the Albanian Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha had about 750,000 ungrounded bunkers built during his reign, from 1945 to his death in 1985. After the fall of communism in 1991, these bunkers, almost indestructible, lost their original usefulness and became the mere vestiges of a dictatorship that lasted nearly fifty years.

Today, their massive presence seems mainly to impress foreigners, while Albanians prefer to look to the future. Although EU accession is not expected to occur for at least ten years, the population feels prepared.

In this book, the bunkers serve as a visual metaphor to tell a broader social story. They help illustrate the evolution of a country that was the last in Europe to abandon communism and that embarked on a demanding quest to integrate the Western capitalist world. David Galjaard traveled across Albania and captured the remnants of a bygone era, forgotten or integrated into contemporary life: the 750,000 bunkers built under Enver Hoxha’s communist regime, which lasted more than forty years.

The photographs are accompanied by short contextual and reflective texts, presented in quarter-page insets inserted into the main binding.

Excellent condition copy, practically as new. A book from my personal collection kept with the utmost care. Shipped protected with reinforced packaging and guaranteed international tracking. In case of multiple purchases, there is a possibility of grouped shipping with reimbursement of any excess postage paid via PayPal.

1.1 kg excluding packaging.