WRITING THE HISTORY OF BALKAN LANDSCAPES THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY (20th-21th C.)

Knowledge of landscapes evolution can be useful for environment or geoheritage management or protection. It can provide also key information to foresee future dynamics and evolutions or a framework to analyse environmental perception and sensitivity. Photograph, combined with other documentary sources as old maps, satellite images or travellers’ narratives is one of the best mean to document changes that occurred over the 150 last years. This contribution will present some historical photographic archives available for studying Balkan landscapes from the beginning of the 20th century onwards, but that remain little known and used. The integration of data into a geographical information system (GIS) allows the assessment of landscape evolution and comparisons both in time and in space. Through two case studies selected in North Macedonia, we will show that diachronic analysis may concern both vegetation covers, and changes that have affected river system. These examples document the great changes that occurred in landscapes through the 20th century. They could contribute both to a better knowledge of biophysical processes over the "longue durée", by connecting to geoarchaeological or palaeoenvironmental researches, both to writing an environmental history of this part of Europe.