First Photographs
January 2019
Omnia orta occident. Whatever goes up must come down. Nothing lasts forever, our lives, our loves, the pleasant moments we spend together discussing love and life. Today, many years later, whenever I savour the sharp pleasure of an extra-dry martini on ice, I cannot help but think back to our last meeting and the paradox of her bitter-sweet confession, her gentle apology. I look around at the material prosperity we have achieved and the urban chaos that we have built for ourselves as a consequence, and I remember that luminous house, the garden walls that enclosed its green and scented paradise and the luxuriant canopy that reached over to create the friendly shade we walked under as little boys. It was one of the first houses to disappear on the waterfront, all of them victims of the onslaught of development that, in no time, erased forever the simple, sunny spirit of the town where I was born. I cannot imagine what purpose could be served by regret but I do wonder if we will ever have the courage to look sincerely and unflinchingly at the younger generation, whose onerous task to protect our planet is an unprecedented one, and to ask them for the same forgiveness she had asked from me.
Konrad Buhagiar, 2019
Malta’s natural and built environment seems to be under constant, rapid transformation. Its urban and natural landscape tightly linked together, continuous with one another, connected by power lines, telephone wires and electricity poles. The two are fused together, difficult to be treated separately. Malta’s perpetual cultural development dramatically affects the two, leaving its society in an incessant search for its identity.
This project acts as a documentation and exploration of Malta’s changing culture. The photographic documentation acts as a representative sampling of the current situation, taking shape in the form of a photographic exhibition and photography book, strong imagery that depict Malta on different scales. Black and white photographs, focusing on large scale urban monuments, to open/natural made spaces, to human moments. This photographic study acts as an attempt to ground Malta, and its society’s identity.
Selected Photographs
The aim of the project is to act as a representative sampling of Malta’s perpetual cultural development. Through the use of a large format film camera, the project aims to provide a true representation, and alternate perception, of Malta’s current natural and built environment. Such a photographic study attempts to ground Malta’s cultural identity at its present state. Within recent years of publication of this book, Malta has experienced a massive construction boom that has rapidly shifted Malta’s built and natural environment. The architectural subjects chosen focused on a mix of large scale real estate developments to abandoned small residential units and everything in between.
The Book Launch
By focusing on a photography exhibition, the project aims to stimulate immediate discussions regarding Malta’s current and future cultural situation, with the intention of gathering conceptual interaction through public display. Many of the architectural developments documented have already changed, therefore the photographic documentation is also intended to act as a long lasting reference point, beyond the temporary exhibition, for future debate and discourse regarding Malta’s environments.
The Book
Designed by Matthew Attard Navarro, the photography book is an 88 page, linen bound hand stitched book, with each book containing a 4x5” Silver Gelatin contact print, hand printed by the photographer, on the cover. The photography book contains black and white images of various scenes throughout Malta’s built and natural environment. Within the middle of the book, one may also find a short story written by Konrad Buhagiar.
