A “forgotten” archive of photos that document life in Malta just after Independence will see the light 60 years later with the launch of a publication that captures the country back then.

Shot by David Wrightson, who has returned to the island for the first time since his assignment as a fresh photographer, the images have been published in Malta Through the Lens – a series that is starting off with his work, considered important because there is “no photographic output documenting the architecture from this period”.

Produced by Midsea Books, the publication includes over 150 images, some of which have never been published before. It marks the return of the Wrightson negatives to Malta and their digitisation at conservation-grade quality by the Malta Image Preservation Archive for safeguarding, posterity and research purposes.

The publication 'Malta Through the Lens' features photographs by David Wrightson

These negatives, described by the publishers as “a vital sliver of Maltese photographic and visual cultural heritage”, remained hidden away until 2019, when architect and architectural historian Conrad Thake passed Wrightson’s contact details on to photo-historian and book editor Charles Azzopardi. Wrightson, in turn, had the negatives repatriated in 2020.

A young Wrightson came to Malta on an assignment by Quentin James Hughes, the first professor of architecture at the University of Malta between 1968 and 1973.

Born in 1940 in Birkenhead, Merseyside, Wrightson had learned photography from his father and brother, and was gifted his first camera, a Kodak Brownie, at the age of 10.

One of the over 150 images of Malta and Gozo shot by David Wrightson

He went on to study architecture and civic design, during which he had an encounter with a “mentor”, who would forever change his path in photography.

Hughes hand-picked Wrightson while still an architecture student to provide photographs for two of his projects: Seaport: Townscape and Architecture of Liverpool and Fortress: Architecture and Military History in Malta, a project that resulted in over 400 negatives of the country’s architecture in 1964.

Wrightson flew over during his study year at the Accademia Britannica in Rome, aged 24 and freshly married. He arrived immediately after a flash honeymoon in Dublin and spent two weeks in Malta right after it gained independence on September 21, following 150 years under British rule.

Some of the photos have never been seen before.

After his first week of shooting, his camera was stolen while resting on a rubble wall to change the lenses. But Wrightson soldiered on, using Hughes’s until the arrival by expedited air freight of another provided by the photographer’s late brother.

The negatives were then safely stored upon Wrightson’s return to Rome to complete his study year and printed when he returned to the UK in 1965.

The octogenarian has now returned to a “massively changed” Malta after an interlude of 60 years to attend the launch of the publication and book signing on Wednesday.

Malta in 1964 was “unspoiled by the rabid devastation for the sake of progress in which it would be embroiled from the 1980s onwards”, the publishers said.

David Wrightson capturing architecture and people in Malta and Gozo in 1964.

“It was an oasis for architectural photography of vernacular, ecclesiastical, military and baroque architecture.

“The meticulous subject composition, the directionality of the incandescent light and the contrasting tones typical of Maltese golden stone drenched in harsh Mediterranean sunlight, captured by Wrightson, reveal a profound, inherent understanding of black and white photography,” Midsea Books said.

The brainchild of Azzopardi, the Malta Through the Lens series of publications is expected to record poorly or as yet undocumented photographers of the post-war period.

Wrightson’s output was chosen for the inaugural publication to mark the 60th anniversary of his previous “productive” visit to the islands.

Unsure of whether he would ever make it back to Malta after so long and at his age, and having gone through two marriage breakdowns in the meantime, Wrightson said he was happy to be here and has a vivid memory of his last visit.

Although most of the baroque landmarks were still standing, he noted a lot more commercial activity.

“The architecture shot for Fortress is still here, but it is much more commercial and saturated with tourists,” he noted.