 |
| Dhimitër Mborja portrait fhoto (archive) |
The fascinating story of the Albanian photographer who "kidnapped" the Japanese princess was a legend that circulated in closed communist Albania. But the full story of Gjergj Dhimitër Mborja would be known much later.
Born in the village of Mborje in Korça in 1903, at the age of 17 he traveled to America to attend the School of Arts in Detroit, a college of photographic art. After finishing college, Mborja goes to Hollywood, where he starts working as a cartoon director. It is believed that his first cartoon in the 20s of the last century is the series "Cubby the Bear". Later he works on many other films, including the plastic figures of dinosaurs in the film "Lost World". Later he sells his studio to the famous Walt Disney. After that, he opens a photography studio and also works in the decoration of various films. Mbroja, who is also known by the nickname Bratko, collaborates with different artists of both the performing arts and the film, while he also works as a director of shows on large ships destined for long voyages. Later, Dhimitër Mborja, studied at the war college in Washington and joins the ranks of the American army as a photographer.
 |
| Dhimitër Mborja surrounded by Japanese children showing a photo to the American general in the 60s in Tokyo |
This work brought him back to Europe, where he compiled a photographic collection of post-war life conditions in the Balkans. He later left UNRRA to work as a civil servant at the US Army East Asia Command under General Douglas MacArthur, where he directed the color photography laboratory. He continued this work until 1956, traveling around Asia photographing generals, statesmen, and ordinary people. His work for the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, for whom he photographed both intimate personal encounters and large-scale indoor projects, gave him access to the famous and secluded places of the royal family. During this time in Asia, he nurtured a passion for collecting art that had its origins in the bargain market of Hollywood and the auction houses of post-war Europe. His initial taste for Japanese art over time expanded to include an appreciation for the traditions of Thailand, Korea, and Indonesia. This taste is given entirely in the Museum.
In the Museum there are about 500 relics from China, Tibet, Russia, Japan, Korea, and some from Europe and America. There are also Buddhist textiles, carpets, and sculptures.
 |
| Dhimitër Mborja and the profile of a woman made with scissors and paper |
He also photographed many American presidents such as Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. He died in 1990, in his home in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, with a bequest that, as we said above, take his ashes to his hometown and build a museum there, bequests that became reality. Mborja's creative opus is stored in the "Douglas MacArthur" museum center in Norfolk, where about 45,000 photos and slides made by him have been collected, some of them are from when he worked in Hollywood.
In the last years of his life, Gjergj Dhimitër Mborja made his decision, to write in his will: After death, the ashes of his body should be returned to his hometown, Korçë, and his collection should be placed in Korçë, in a museum built with his savings to better serve the city's future.
The Oriental Museum "Bratko" was opened in 2003. The director of this museum, Jonilda Trebicka, says that there are 500 exhibited objects coming from Asia, Persia and Iran, personal collections of Dhimitër Mborja. After going to America, in his integration, Mborja was initially interested in the free markets of Hollywood, which also belonged to antiquity. There was the beginning where he also bought objects at auctions held in Europe, especially houses.