"Steel 2002", exhibition of men at work

Photographs taken by Peter Paul Barbara, inspired by Malta Drydocks' workers, have been given pride of place in the hallways of a Brussels-based international trade union premises.

Themed 'Steel 2002: the moulding of a small nation', the exhibition was opened last week by European Trade Union Confederation cultural officer Antonio Giaché.

This photographic exhibition consists of 30 digitally-enhanced and printed images, depicting men at work and steel structures at the Malta docks.

This is the second such exhibition to be hosted there during the last five years. Mr Barbara said his project could not have materialised had it not been for the support of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Strickland Foundation and the Reggie Miller Foundation among others.

The exhibition, which will run till the end of June, has been so well received that it will also be displayed for another month at the European Metal Federation in Brussels and plans are also underway for his exhibition to be displayed in Germany.

The photographs making up Steel 2002 form part of a vast repertoire on the subject that has been compiled by Mr Barbara over the last 10 years.

His collection forms part of a larger exhibition which will be set up at the St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in September.

The images, printed in duo-tone, are an explosion of vivid colours bringing in different moods according to the different subject they depict.

Born in Rabat in 1967, Mr Barbara's keen eye for detail has landed him spots in a number of British magazines.

An associate member of both the Royal Photographic Society and the Masters Photographers Association of Great Britain, Mr Barbara set up his first one-man exhibition entitled Primordial Engravings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, in April 1997.

Mr Barbara is the deputy project coordinator and lecturer of photography with the Malta Centre for Restoration. He is also employed on a part-time basis with the General Workers' Union as EU desk officer as well as the curator of Gallerija Liberta art gallery.