About — Kamenica, Kosovo
Arian Mavriqi is a wildlife and nature photographer from Kamenica, a small town in eastern Kosovo. Since 2012 he has documented the birds, mammals, reptiles and wild places of Kosovo and Albania, and he makes the weekly wildlife documentary series Wildlife me Arian Mavriqin for KTV.
011980s
Kamenica is ringed by hills, with a river and a lake that draw birds and wild animals. Arian’s interest began in the 1980s, when he was around ten, spending his days in the mountains and by the water, watching what lived there and thinking that somebody ought to be recording it.
He dreamed of making a nature documentary of his own.
02The war years
The war put that dream on hold. “Even if you had a camera,” he remembers, “you could be accused of espionage.”
After 1999 he worked in journalism, first in radio, and later for an organisation working on relations between communities in Kosovo.
032012
In 2012 he began photographing in earnest: macro studies of flowers and insects, made on a Samsung Galaxy S4 that Albanians living abroad had given him.
Birds in flight were beyond a phone, so he bought a camera, then a longer lens, because his greatest wish was to photograph migratory birds. When he posted the results online, many people in Kosovo discovered for the first time that these birds lived alongside them.
04Today
A passion became a profession, and a public record. He has photographed more than 210 bird species, and eleven species entered Kosovo’s official records for the first time through his photographs.
Fifteen camera traps watch over sites across Kosovo, some mounted after climbing oaks twenty-five metres high. He works with Kosovo’s Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning and with organisations abroad, building a record of species that future generations can learn from.
05On screen, on the road
His weekly series Wildlife me Arian Mavriqin airs on KTV, following an earlier run on the public broadcaster RTK. He co-founded Wild Life Albanian Photographers, a group registered in Albania and Kosovo and based in Kamenica.
His photographs have travelled to London with the group, across Scandinavia, Austria and to the Embassy of Kosovo in Bern, to Green Fest in Mitrovica, where his documentary Wild Kosovo was screened, and inside the walls of Gjirokastër Castle. In 2025 he announced his first book, Wild Kosova.
The method
Dressed for the forest floor, so the animal sees landscape instead of a man with a lens.
Hours without moving. Sometimes days: his longest wait in one spot lasted three.
Twelve years, he says, before he could photograph a wolf in the municipality of Kamenica.
Above everything else, understanding behaviour: where a bird will land, when a fox will look up.
Drag to read
“You cannot do anything without patience in this kind of photography.”
Interview with Active Albania, 2021
“Those who cause problems for them are us.”
Katror, 2023Translated from Albanian
“Firstly you should love fauna and understand the importance of the biodiversity.”
Interview with Active Albania, 2021
“Even if you had a camera, you could be accused of espionage.”
On the war years, Gazeta Frymëzimi, 2025Translated from Albanian
“You can even start with a phone.”
Advice to beginners, Gazeta Frymëzimi, 2025Translated from Albanian
“With will and desire, everything is possible.”
Katror, 2023Translated from Albanian
The lagoons, lakes and hills he names when asked where he most likes to work, from home in Kosovo to the Albanian coast.
An ambassador for the beauty of Albania’s nature, a strong voice for protecting it, and a great storyteller, in his photographs and in his words.
Macro studies of flowers and insects around Kamenica, made on a phone that Albanians living abroad had given him.
With fellow photographer Besnik Jakupi, he photographs and films a rare black wolf near Kamenica.
An exhibition tour from Scandinavia to Austria and Switzerland, including the Embassy of Kosovo in Bern.
His documentary is screened with an exhibition of his photographs at Green Fest in Mitrovica.
An exhibition of Albanian wildlife inside the castle walls, opened with Albania’s Minister of Tourism and Environment.
He films golden orioles feeding their young at the nest, and announces his first book, Wild Kosova.
On screen
His weekly wildlife documentary series on KTV, following an earlier run on the public broadcaster RTK.
Collective
A group he co-founded, registered in Albania and Kosovo and based in Kamenica, bringing wildlife photographers together.
Recognition
Named, with fellow photographers, a guardian of nature protection at an official state ceremony.
Prints, licensing, assignments & talks
Pl. 03 — Dalmatian pelican, Pelecanus crispus
