AGIM AVDIU’S CAMERA

Camera donors: Gëzim and Gazmend Avdiu

Agim Avdiu (1954–2005) worked as an editor at Radio Television of Prishtina (RTP) from 1974 until 1990, when he was dismissed as part of the repressive measures imposed by the Milošević regime, which removed around 2,000 Albanian employees from public television and the Rilindja daily newspaper, according to Human Rights Watch. He subsequently founded “Studio AA” with his sons, Gëzim and Gazmend, and in 1991 purchased this Panasonic M10 camera in Zagreb.

The camera was brought to Kosovo and used to document injuries and testimonies of violence against Albanians. After being beaten by Serbian police, people would come to Agim’s home, show their wounds before his camera and give statements so that the violence they had suffered would be documented. At the same time, the camera was used to film comedy sketches, as well as concerts and weddings during the 1990s for audiences in the diaspora. According to Rexhep Selimi, the recording of the song “Kreshtat e Kosovës” in a traditional oda in Drenica was also made with this camera.

In 1997, the camera was donated to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to document events in the areas where it operated. During the offensive in Drenica, Halil Bytyçi (Commander Therra) hid it in a chicken coop. “The entire house burned down except for the chicken coop. Something divine saved this camera, which Rexhep Selimi had given me to keep safe while I was at my family tower in Obri during the terrible offensive Serbia carried out against us in 1998,” Bytyçi told Reporting House.

After the war, Rexhep Selimi kept the camera at the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), and following Agim’s death in 2005, it was returned to his family. In 2024, Gëzim and Gazmend donated the camera to Reporting House, where it is now preserved and exhibited as an important artefact in the museum’s collection.