Although in the same style and format as the previous publication, this, the fourth volume in the series varies from the first three volumes. Malta & Gozo Volume IV covers a broad area of the islands instead of a specific locality. It depicts the island on the threshold of modernism but still an agriculture-based society especially in the regions away from the central harbour area.
A number of well-known experts have analysed the glass plate photographs selected from the vast archives of the Richard Ellis collection. Their insights, comments, and conclusions turn simple photographs into individual studies of different aspects of Malta and Gozo.
The photographs are supplemented by the contributions from Katya Stroud, curator of the National Museum of Archaeology: she looks at Malta's rich archaeological history. Joseph Attard Tabone, a prominent member of Malta's Heritage Committee and Paul P.Borg a distinguished scholar of Maltese folklore, analyses the rural development of Malta and Gozo. Kenneth Zammit Tabona, writer artist and music critic comments on some of Malta's fine palaces, gardens and their residents.
The complete archive contains some 36,000 images, most of which are glass-plate negatives, the oldest coinciding with Richard Ellis's arrival in Malta in 1862. The photographs, mostly taken on a large-format studio camera, have been carefully reproduced from the original glass plates using the latest digital technology.
Richard Ellis has given the Maltese nation a treasure of timeless images placing Malta in the forefront in the development of photography from its infancy.
Book editor Ian Ellis, the photographer’s great grandson, along with picture researcher and photo editor, Patrick J. Fenech, have once again pieced together an extraordinary volume with this 4th sequel which will dwell on the influence of modernism captured by this master of photography. The Richard Ellis Collection is an invaluable source of reference for photographic and historical research.
If this is of interest, you can try picking a copy (80 Euros) through the Amazon link on the right. If not, try here.
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