Photos to 'Dig': Exhibit Examines
Old, New and Ancient Face of Albania

Right before he left for his first season as the photographer for the University of Cincinnati's archaeological project in Albania, friends of Garett J. Holden gave him a book that listed the most dangerous countries in the world. Albania, which had experienced a period of anarchy during the 1990s, was No. 3.

Despite the potential peril, Holden became the team's photographer, went back for a second season and will return again this summer. Holden will share images of the Albania he has come to know and love in an exhibition of his work at the UC Edwards Gallery April 1-19 in Room 6106. The show, "In-Trenched," is sponsored by DAAP Galleries and features more than 30 black-and-white and color photos he has snapped in his work with UC's Mallakastra Regional Archaeological Project (MRAP) in central Albania.

His photos focus not only on the archaeological work the team is pursuing in the region around the former Greek colony of Apollonia, but also on the culture of Albania.

The UC classics department began its MRAP archaeological field surface survey with colleagues in Albania in 1998. Holden joined the team in 2000. For the most part, Holden has not encountered the danger that his friends' gift warned him about.

"There was one afternoon when he called in on the walkie-talkie and reported he was being followed by a man with a gun," recalls Jack L. Davis, the UC team's director and MRAP co-director. "I always get very concerned when people use the G word."

"It turned out that the man with the gun was concerned about his safety and escorted him back to camp," says Davis, the Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

On another occasion, the photographer went to check out a bunker he had been told was abandoned. But when he and a companion found it, armed men dressed in military garb were using it. "They gave us a hard time. They didn't like the fact that we were there," Holden now remarks nonchalantly.

In his cultural photos of the former Communist nation, Holden tries to show evidence of both Albania's increasing Americanization and its older home-grown traditions. One of the reasons the UC team is working in Albania is to preserve history before it's lost to rapid commercialization. One photo shows the typical custom of villagers dividing a cow they have purchased and slaughtered. Another shows a man sitting in front of a giant Coke can, evidence of Western commercialization. "The Coke ad is probably one of my favorites. It's a good documentation of their culture right now," says Holden.

This year's MRAP team from UC will include Davis; John Wallrodt, coordinator of systems development; Sharon Stocker, doctoral student; Jennifer Byers, Ols Lafe and Eugenia Gorogianni, graduate students; and Matt Fenwick of the geology department. The team will work June 20-July 31, 2002.

Holden recently moved to New York City, but is a Cincinnati native who graduated from Anderson High School in 1993. He holds a BFA from Cincinnati Art Academy (1999).

MRAP has been funded by the Louise Taft Semple Fund of UC's Department of Classics and by the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, Albania.

EXHIBIT HOURS: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.
COST: Admission is free.
INFORMATION: (513) 556-2839.
PREVIEW: 5-7 p.m. Friday, March 29.