The second half of the 19th century was a fertile time for photography in Malta. After a slow start in the 1840s, the late 1850s saw the proliferation of several photographic studios in Valletta, Floriana and Cottonera.

One of the most prolific and proficient practitioners in the field of portrait photography during his brief life was Leandro Preziosi (1830-1869). In order to run a successful studio, Preziosi engaged assistants who could help him deal with his volume of work. This system of apprenticeship allowed a new generation of photographers to develop; five of Preziosi’s assistants who later established their own studios were Giuseppe Lorenzo Formosa, Salvatore Pizzuto, Luigi Camilleri, Augusto Felice and Alessandro Caruana.

This article concentrates on Alessandro Caruana (or Alex Caruana, as he frequently abbreviated his first name, as a possible nod towards potential British clients), about whom little is known apart from the photographs that bore his name.

Two photos of Alessandro Caruana

Two photos of Alessandro Caruana

Up to this point, we did not even know what he looked like. The present focus on Caruana stems from an album of cartes-de-visite, which it is claimed may have belonged to Caruana. The following are the arguments to support this claim.

The album in question is a conventional 19th-century carte-de-visite album displaying four cards on each page, each image being slid into place through a slot below the window through which it is viewed. This album, which is in very poor condition due to excessive wear and the disintegration of the binding, contained 156 cartes-de-visite. Fifty of these were taken by Leandro Preziosi, 23 by Alessandro Caruana, and a sprinkling by other photographers such as Domenico Rosati, Richard Ellis and Michele Zahra, as well as a few by foreign photographers.

Most important among these photographs are two self-portraits of the photographer. They both depict a handsome, confident, well-dressed young man with a penchant for facial hair

The large number of Caruana’s photos gives the strongest indication that the album may have belonged to him. This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that some of these portraits represent sitters sharing the same surname, seemingly members of one family. The heavy use of the album might also have been the result of it being used as a sample album by which poses and backgrounds were chosen by prospective clients visiting Caruana’s studio.

Caruana’s biographical details are sketchy; he appears to have been active from around 1862 until as late as 1905. Between 1862 and 1864, he worked from 51, Strada Miratore, Floriana, from the house belonging to his father, Salvatore Caruana, so it is probable he was born in Floriana. Subsequently, he was recruited by Preziosi, first at the 19, Piazza Bretanica studio in Floriana until 1867, and later at the 28, Strada Federico studio in Valletta, primarily as a colourist but also as an assistant photographer.

Upon Preziosi’s death in December 1869, he remained at the studio, first under Giuseppe Lorenzo Formosa, who had entered an agreement with Preziosi’s widow, Lucrezia, to continue the photographic operations of the former Preziosi studio, before taking over in 1872 with Augusto Felice until the end of 1873.

Caruana remained at the same studio location in Strada Federico until January 1876, working with Luigi Camilleri and Domenico Rosati, when he moved to open his studio independently at 41, Strada Stretta (also known as Fotografia Nazionale Artistica, Melita Studio and Caruana’s Photographic Studio), next door to Richard Ellis’s first studio at number 43, Strada Stretta.

Although probably not the best of business decisions to be sited right next door to such a prolific photographer as Ellis, Caruana’s studio and its photographic output survived until the turn of the century based on the dates on various cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards, until his death in 1909.

The Caruana studio was on the corner of Strada Stretta and Strada San Giovanni. The other photographic studios on Strada Stretta were located between Strada Santa Lucia and Strada Vescovo (at numbers 56, 64, 66 and 134); they thus were physically segregated from the stretch of road occupied by Ellis and Caruana. The Caruana and the Ellis studios were two of the few studios that did not undergo the frequent change of tenancy experienced by the other photographic studios on Strada Stretta.

Testament to Caruana’s skillset is the fact that he was awarded prize medals at the Malta Industrial Exhibition in 1885 and at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886, facts that he proudly showcased on the back of his cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards.

Here, his business acumen is also evident, as he frequently updated the printed designs on the back of his cards, sometimes using templates from Cooke in London and Bernhard Wachtl in Vienna, which incorporated the floral designs, cherubs and sailboats typical of Victorian-era cartes-de-visite.

Back of one of Caruana's first carte-de-visites, including a spelling error.

Backs of Caruana’s carte-de-visite at various stages in his career.

Backs of Caruana’s carte-de-visite at various stages in his career.

Backs of Caruana’s carte-de-visite at various stages in his career.

Although Caruana was already an active photographer before being recruited by Preziosi, he does not seem to have inherited Preziosi’s fabled attention to detail and photographic technique; all his photographs in this album demonstrate a crucial flaw in his processing of the albumen prints – the images are dull and faded due to poor fixing during processing (the same flaw that also afflicted Horatio Agius’s prints).

It, therefore, seems as though Caruana might not have had access to, or not have been able to afford, the chemicals that allowed Preziosi’s images to give them their enduring clarity and precision. Victorian Malta’s enduring scarcity of running water may have also played its part. Thus, most of the images illustrated here have been digitally enhanced to make them clearer.

Most important among these photographs are two self-portraits of the photographer. They both depict a handsome, confident, well-dressed young man with a penchant for facial hair. These two images finally give us accurate portraits of Caruana. Also significant are two matching portraits of Carolina Caruana, who we can safely assume was the photographer’s wife. The portrait of her looking to her left is by Richard Ellis, captured in 1872.

Carolina Caruana

Another photo of Carolina Caruana, taken by Richard Ellis

Next are two full-length portraits of children described as Lollo and Giuseppe Caruana. They are both wearing fancy dress. Giuseppe is dressed in full highland dress: tartan kilt and sash, sporran and Glengarry bonnet. His pose is surprisingly defiant for so young an actor!

Lollo (or Lolla), on the other hand, dressed in 18th-century court dress, adopts a pose bordering on nonchalance or even boredom. Both youngsters seem accustomed to being dolled up and made to adopt poses by a father keen on finding subjects to advertise his trade.

Giuseppe Caruana

Lollo Caruana

The album also includes two portraits entitled ‘Enrico Caruana, zio’ and ‘Giuseppe Caruana, zio’. The fact that these two sitters are referred to as uncles reinforces the link to Alessandro Caruana.

Enrico Caruana, zio

Giuseppe Caruana, zio

A hand-coloured carte-de-visite

The hand-coloured photograph of a seated woman illustrated here is an important example of Caruana’s skill at applying colour to his photographs. While his colouring adds interest to the shot, it lacks conviction. It is nowhere near as skilful as that of his British contemporary Miss Bond, who coloured Preziosi’s carte-de-visite of Clementina Le Marchant (‘Shining a light on some patrons of photographer Leandro Preziosi’, January 22, 2017).

The back of this card is interesting for several reasons: the address given is that of 51, Strada Miratore, Floriana, which indicates that this was an early example of Caruana’s work, that is, before he worked with Preziosi. It also has a relatively plain back featuring only text, with none of the graphic embellishment that was characteristic of his later cartes-de-visite, as described above. Despite its simplicity, the text includes a spelling error with the word photographer spelt erroneously as “Potographer”, an error that was corrected in subsequent cards, when the royal cypher was also added.

The foregoing strongly indicates that the album belonged to Alessandro Caruana; however, even if this conclusion is proved to be incorrect, we can be quite sure that a face has finally been put to his name and possibly his wife, together with those of his children and uncles.

Image copyright

The images in this article are from Christopher Grech’s collection. All images are by Alessandro Caruana unless otherwise indicated.