The Maltese: A Six-Year Long Photography Series
Inigo Taylor is a professional photographer who visited Malta as a young boy. After deciding to make a home here, he began a six-year long photography series capturing the people and transient moments around him. He shares his story and beautiful series with Lovin Malta
My grandfather has lived in Gozo for the past 30 years. I visited as a child every summer and spent my time playing with the local kids around the streets of St George, often barefoot. This was obviously a big adventure for a little English boy.
When I finished my photographic studies in the U.K. I decided I would join my parents on the islands – they had also retired there. I wanted to try Mediterranean life on a full-time basis for a few months.
A few months turned into me being here permanently since 2010. I met my fiancée, Stefania, who has been instrumental in keeping me working on my personal project, which I titled “The Maltese”. I now live in Siggiewi.
As a documentary photographer I have worked in various countries, but being based in Malta has allowed me to photographically explore a place over a long time. This project has pushed me to get to know the culture and people of Malta.
“the country has experienced tremendous change – but the sense of Maltese identity is still very pronounced and evident”
Inigo Taylor, photographer
Malta excites me because of the time in which the country finds itself. Since I started actively photographing here in 2007, its gone through tremendous change – but the sense of Maltese identity is still very pronounced and evident.
I really think that such a small country having so many influences through it’s storied past, in many ways makes it truly the centre of the Mediterranean. This is what’s at the core of my project.
“that’s one of the things that excites me… when it stops being banal and becomes a record of the times we lived in”
Inigo Taylor, photographer
Maltese people often comment on how I photograph things that they might just past by, and in a way take for granted or find quite banal. But that’s one of the things that excites me – the idea that over time documentary photography increases its social value. It stops being banal and becomes a record of the times we lived in, albeit through the subjectivity of the photographers vision
“The main thing I love about Malta is its perfect imperfection”
Inigo Taylor, photographer
Malta, and even more importantly – Gozo, have been integral parts of my life and through my photography I strive to celebrate the islands. But I have no interest in creating a “chocolate box picture book”, I want a body of work that is real, that doesn’t prettify to the point of being deceptive.
Yet of course photography is inherently subjective, and my viewpoint has inevitably become central to the series. But capturing the Maltese people and their identity is the ultimate goal of the project.
The main thing I love about Malta is its perfect imperfection. I love its bold sense of identity, which is so evident in all the people I have been privileged to photograph.
Inigo Taylor is a full time freelance photographer who specialises in wedding photography. His ethos is to try to bring elements of his personal work into his professional projects, telling stories and creating unique results for his clients. For more of his photography visit his website here.