This is Tirana as seen by the man who often makes us look up from the familiar buzz of the paramotor flying above our heads, the Tirana that has become home to hundreds of thousands of people, locals and newcomers alike, as the old saying goes.
This album brings you Alket Islami’s Tirana, captured from the air over two decades.
Buildings, streets and squares photographed at different moments in time; skyscrapers racing one another to rise ever higher.
The closer the photographer glides toward the city with his parachute, the more Tirana reveals its details: shapes, objects, buildings, roads, parks, and people moving quickly or calmly from every direction, creating a beautiful contrast to the noise of the city center.
But if you only look at the photographs without reading the captions, you would be doing this album a great injustice.
Each photo is accompanied by the year it was taken and by information that will not only inform you, but often surprise you.
And for those who love to read, 11 of the world’s most renowned architects, including Stefano Boeri and Bjarke Ingels, share their ideas and reflections on the transformations that have shaped, and continue to shape, Tirana.

Tirana is noisy, wonderful, sometimes a little melancholic, yet always captivating when admired from above in all its beauty.
The journey will continue with another volume that will bring even more images from the author’s archive and new flights.
Until then, we invite you to enjoy “Tirana from the Air – Volume 1.”