Video: HD, 30 minutes , 2021


Concept / Directing: Adnan Softić
Video editing: Nina Softić
Photography: Les Archives de la Planète — Albert Kahn

Comissioned by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)

Albert Kahn was a pioneer of color photography, a banker and one of the richest men in Europe. He used his fortune to set up, what was then, the largest ethnological photography and film project - "Les Archives de la Planète" (The Archives of the Planet) - between 1908 and 1930. His idea was to create an understanding of other people and their culture, and thus a peaceful world, through the visual representation of everyday life from all parts of the world. At the same time, however, his archive also captured many cultures that have since perished, ways of life that increasingly disappeared in the years that followed as a result of the emerging technological revolution and flared nationalisms.

The work US & THEM examines the Balkan region, focusing on the dress codes of the time that served as cultural distinctions as well as the complexity of the region.