Quarantine frustration has inspired photographer Ramon Portelli to shoot a series of images in a virtual space that defied the restrictions of the virus outbreak, allowing him to explore a new crea­tive route and be “out and about” in these weeks of self-isolation.

His work also focuses on abstract rather than dramatic, complicated scenes.

When a “trip of a lifetime” to Japan was cut short after a couple of days and the architecture and minimalist photographer found himself locked inside, he started browsing through Google Street View for locations he had planned to visit… and thinking of the many photo opportunities he was losing out on.

Then, he had a light-bulb moment. “With all this time on my hands, why not wander around in Street View taking ‘pictures’ as though I were there?”

Instead, though, Portelli settled on Malta, exploring a familiar environment – “possibly to avoid focusing on what he was missing”.

He moved through a three-dimensional space, using an image-capturing device – the Print Screen button – instead of the shutter button on a camera, importing and editing the same way he would the files from his camera and uploading them back online.

Photo: Ramon Portelli

Legalities aside, the project raises other interesting questions.

Portelli asks: “Is what I am doing actually photography?”

However, despite being created in a virtual space, and based on grabbing a shot, he does not doubt the element of subjectivity – it was, after all, down to his individual eye.

“Granted, no moment is being captured since that has already been done by the Street View car, but my photography is not much about that anyway. I tend to take my time finding the right composition, which usually means that if a moment is happening on the street, I would probably miss it...”

I personally need a creative outlet in such times and this idea was my way of doing things

The choice of locations to photograph was based mainly on interesting light and compositional elements like symmetry. “I had certain buildings and spaces in mind when I started, but many shots I may have taken in real life were not good photos.”

The end result is a series of 20 images, which Portelli has titled ‘Out and About’. He did not set out with a theme in mind “except to get my photography fix while stuck indoors”.

But if he had to assign a subject to the works, it would be “the built environment, which in Malta would be simply ‘the environment’ since there is not much else”.

‘Out and About’ is, in fact, by no means a picture-postcard version of Malta, capturing mostly buildings and details that no one would give a second thought to; things that are not normally documented. But for Portelli, they matter more than the usual tourist locations and fit into his stark, matter-of-fact style.

While ‘overriding’ COVID-19 homebound restrictions, Portelli had other constraints to contend with, including limited control over the angles. Navigating Street View is not as flexible as walking down a street, where the shot is completely up to the photographer. Also, the images’ low resolution and quality meant he was unable to zoom in and out.

Portelli used the usual photographic post-processing techniques to edit the images, including photoshopping out distracting elements – something he always eliminates to focus the viewer’s attention.

His work in general is, in fact, more about abstract compositions, which he finds more challenging and interesting, rather than focusing on dramatic, complicated scenes. So the Street View constraints suited him.

As a result, while the series does not actually portray today’s coronavirus Malta, coincidentally, it captures the mood on the quiet streets, where traffic has decreased.

It felt “eerily like being out and about taking photos”, hence the title, Portelli says.

Times like these tend to bring out artists’ creativity, and he agrees that creative restrictions lead to thinking outside the box due to the inability, in his case, of falling back on normal equipment and techniques.

“I personally need a creative outlet in such times and this idea was my way of doing things, while respecting social-distancing rules that were suddenly imposed by this virus.”