There is a freedom to dream about the future, and there is a freedom to travel back in time.
The Catholic community of the small Northern Albanian village called Hajmel has chosen to travel back in time every Christmas' eve to the Betlehem of year zero, where hundreds of volunteers and Cappuchin church members re-enact every year the story of Betlehem, and thousands of attendees pay a visit to the ancient ritual since it initiated in Hajmel in 2018.
Volunteers take on different roles from the ancient times, ranging from metal shaping, to caring caring for patients with leprosy.
Nensi Bogdani is an Albanian photojournalist and documentary photographer, born in Tirana in 1990.
Currently she works as a visual journalist for BIRN network in Albania, covering social, environmental and religious issues, and simultaneously she engages in personal long-term documentary projects.
Through her photography she also tries to explore the line between fiction and reality.
Awards Nensi has won several photo awards:
-Third Prize at photographic contest by Europe House Tirana with sinle photo
-Winner at journalistic contest by ActionAid Hellas in Greece with "My skin felt so heavy" Photoseries
-First Prize at RadioPulla Photographic Contest Albania with single photo
-Finalist at Photometria festival Ioannina with single photo
-Shortlisted at Athens Photo Festival with "Secondhand dreams" photoseries
-VII Academy Scholarship Winner for "No man's land" workshop at the Festival of the Image in Sarajevo, 2019.
-Magnum Photo Scholarship for "Inside-Out" Workshop in Tirana, 2024.
