REM – Plovdiv presents a visual project following the footsteps of the first photographers of the Balkan Peninsula – the Manaki brothers

The exhibition “Beyond Yesterday – an anthropological journey across the Balkans following the footsteps of the Manaki brothers, 1900” is the latest addition to the cultural calendar of the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv. The photographic exhibition is a visual-anthropological project by Romanian anthropologist Catalin D. Constantin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the brothers Yanaki and Milton Manaki documented, through their photographs, the lives of the Vlach communities in Macedonia and Epirus. At that time, these settlements bore different names, the roads were different, and the entire region was under Ottoman rule. One of the brothers, Yanaki, spent three years in Plovdiv. Little is known about the photographs he took during that period. More than a century later, Catalin D. Constantin retraces the route of the Manaki family, recreating the same scenes from the same vantage points.

“Beyond Yesterday” brings together historical photographs from the archives of the Museum of the Romanian Peasant and contemporary images taken by the author, creating a visual dialogue about cultural memory, identity, and the profound transformations of the Balkan world. More than a simple attempt to pinpoint the exact locations of old photographs, this visual anthropology project tells a story of encounters and discoveries along the way.

“I was not simply interested in recreating old photographs with the same framing. Rather, it was a way to enter isolated communities in the Balkans and see how they live — today, not yesterday. How much have the Balkans changed over the past hundred years? This is the question that concerns me. Photography proved to be an extremely useful tool for field research — a path toward understanding how small worlds and isolated communities change under the pressure of history. From an anthropological perspective, this is a way to describe the course of our own history — here, at home, in the Balkans,” the author comments.

The project is part of a broader series of visual studies dedicated to reconstructing Balkan cultural heritage from the early 20th century. The exhibition has already been presented in Greece — in Metsovo and Ioannina, where the Manaki brothers opened their first photography studio — as well as in Bitola, at the National Gallery in Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), in Korça (Albania), at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest, in Istanbul and Ankara. It is now coming to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and later this year will continue its journey to Thessaloniki.

Catalin D. Constantin is an anthropologist, book editor, and associate professor at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest. His exhibitions have been presented in Romania, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland, Greece, Albania, Ireland, Italy, North Macedonia, and Portugal.

The official opening of the exhibition will take place on April 3 at 3:00 PM at the museum, 2 Dr. Chomakov St. On April 2 at 6:00 PM, also at the museum, the author invites everyone interested in anthropology and photography to a personal meeting.

The events at REM – Plovdiv are organized in partnership with the Embassy of Romania in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Honorary Consulate of Romania in Plovdiv.