Several collections of photos are running around and stashed away in private hands when they could make a “fantastic” and sorely needed national photography museum, according to artist-photographer Patrick Fenech.
Unfortunately, however, his proposals have always fallen on deaf ears. Meanwhile, entire archives are being sold off overseas, he says, mentioning a particular collection of 500 photos, dating back to the period between the world wars, including cameras and related paraphernalia, which was “dumped” for as little as £200.
“I know people who just want to get rid of these collections, composed of bulky glass plate negatives,” Mr Fenech says with regret and frustration.
Malta is calling out for such a museum – all the more because photography arrived here “the day after it was invented”.
Mr Fenech maintains it would be a great tourist attraction and an important aspect of cultural tourism, which Valletta, in line to be Europe’s Capital of Culture in 2018, is crying out for, having “nothing to offer” in terms of museums.
“We have all the material but we are just sitting pretty. It is crazy and I do not understand why nothing ever happens,” Mr Fenech said.
But not all is lost and he certainly is not twiddling his thumbs, having researched the images for the third volume of The Richard Ellis Photography Collection, which includes about 200 photos of Sliema and St Julians in their former glory and is an example of one extensive archive that is being put to good use.
One of the biggest archives on the island, the Ellis glass plate negatives number about 40,000, dating from between 1862, when the Englishman landed in Malta, to his death in 1924.
Mr Fenech has been researching them for three years and he claims he has not even gone through half the collection yet. His wish is to have the vast archives, including equipment and massive studio cameras, displayed – “if not in a national museum, in an Ellis Photography Museum!”
While compiling the third volume, which has just been launched, Mr Fenech said he was shocked at how Sliema and St Julians have changed.
These publications have proven to be popular, though Mr Fenech admits it is not so much in appreciation of the photography per se as it is for the appeal of their nostalgic element and their exclusivity.“It is about keeping the memory alive and is proof of the need to educate the public on literacy through photography.”
That is another aim Mr Fenech has in mind. And he plans to do it through the creation of a photography festival, the first of its kind in Malta, scheduled for May.
The idea is to latch onto the whole network of European festivals and celebrate fine-art photography.
Mr Fenech is inviting 11 local practitioners to participate by following a specific brief to develop a contemporary Malta concept.
The Valletta Photo Festival 2011, supported by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts and the Valletta local council, has already secured financing from the Malta Arts Fund, within the Education Ministry.
Apart from the photographic exhibitions in Valletta’s museums and public spaces, the festival plans to branch out into schools through workshops that educate the students to read contemporary and fine-art photography.
Mr Fenech would like to see the project turn into a bi-annual event and take on an intern-ational dimension by inviting known foreign artists to participate.
“All the overseas festivals started low key and then gained momentum,” he said optimistically, determined to arouse a lacking appreciation of contemporary photography.