Malta Institute of Professional Photography (MIPP) newsletter: August 2016

The Official MIPP Newsletter

August 2016

FOCALPOINT

Issue No. 67

www.mipp-malta.com

EDITORIAL As

the temperatures soar up so does the excitement for the International World Photography Day which is celebrated worldwide on 19th August.

If you want your photos featured on the newsletter’s front page just send the images to newsletter@mippmalta.com.

Your contributions are always welcome!

Us at MIPP, will be hosting an interesting event for this occasion on Sunday 21st August with a talk by Kevin Casha hosted at Hilltop Gardens. Make sure you book your place for this event!

August is also ideal for night photography.

Between the second and third week of August one can witness the ‘Tears of St Lawrence’ meteor showers, so there is nothing better than scouting a remote location in Malta away from light pollution, set up your tripod and be ready to capture some beautiful night shots.

Find us on:

Newsletter Team Editor: Therese Debono Design: Therese Debono

Meanwhile enjoy the peak of summer and have a few cocktails too whilst you are at it!

Article Vetting: Vince DeBono

Happy Summer!

Editorial Advice: Kevin Casha

Therese

Contact: newsletter@mippmalta.com

Articles: Various contributors

AUGUST 2016 pg 2 pg 4 pg 6 pg 10 pg 14 pg 19 pg 20 pg 22

cover artist

Viewpoint MIPP Events Exhibition Review Member’s Article Out & About MIPP Talks MIPP Calendar MIPP Events

CONTENTS Beyond Borders World Photography Day Exhibition Review by Tomoko Goto Istanbul the European/Asiatic City August Events!

Bird Photography with Natalino Fenech Calendar of Events July Events in Pictures

Sean Azzopardi One of the images from this year’s Photographer of the Year competition

by Sean Azzopardi.

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Beyond Borders

Viewpoint

Kevin Casha

Dear members, This time I wanted to share with you a recent project that I completed: BEYOND BORDERS - Perspectives on migration. I wish to outline the concept of this work and perhaps manage to stress the importance that photography can have in our society.

In Malta, it is increasingly difficult to move away from the discourse on migration and integration. The island’s location, as one British writer once put it “the navel of the Mediterranean.” No one can deny that this “navel” is in the centre of a controversial maelstrom which, unfortunately, has become an endless issue with hot debate between various camps and factions.

It is a fact that Europe has an aging population and that a crisis scenario looms whereas not enough workers will be employed in European countries to sustain the straining financial requirements of pensions. However, most Europeans look at migrants only as a burden and most politicians, caught between their vote catching priorities, seem to be unable to legislate solidly and efficiently on this massive movement and displacement of humanity.

Who can blame a person for choosing to better one’s life? Are we not all born with at least the right of improving the life of ourselves and our loved ones? Who can stay in a country where the only choice is enslavement, disease, misery and, many times, death? All these thoughts and others kept churning around my brain and led me to try and explore the situation through a practical and hopefully unbiased manner that everyone can understand.

Beyond Borders is an attempt to look into the positive aspects of migration and avoid the dark, pessimistic narratives that the media very often dishes out.

Naturally, my medium is photography so I wanted to use a genre of art that I am comfortable with. I also wanted to investigate the inner thoughts of the migrants’ stay on our island; how they arrived here; how they have been received; how they have made ends meet and how many of them have actually managed to become part of Maltese society. Moreover, I wanted to record their progress on the island

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as most of them are already doing their part in the local economy and towards society. In a world which is increasingly becoming globalised and multi-cultural, the sooner that societies manage to integrate migrants is vital for the benefit of all current and future generations. For sure, every race, nation and religion has its fanatics and these will never unfortunately disappear however, let us not forget the many examples were integration of migrants has been successful.... What about the Indian community in Britain; what about the Turks in Germany; what about America - a country whose strength is through its diversity?

Tackling this project has also made me realise my own weaknesses, perhaps my prejudice, and my failure to see the “other side of the coin.” I feel that he journey has made me a better man, has shown me that it is only through sincere communication and dialogue that bridges are built. Integration is definitely not a one-way issue but an issue in which all sides need to do their part. Building bridges that aid integration will safeguard host countries from forcing migrants into isolation or “ghettoes” which can only eventually flare up.

It is also the responsible, yet understandably difficult job of those who are in power to identify and implement legislation which addresses these huge problems -

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without being influenced by commercial gain, greed and inhumanity.

Note: I would like to thank two persons who have made this project possible, namely Alec Douglas and Daniel Vassallo, both from Cross Culture International. Without their ongoing help, this project would have never materialised. Naturally, I must thank all the contributing sponsors and, most of all, the persons who accepted to be interviewed and be part of “Beyond Borders.”

For viewing all the material produced in the workshop visit the following links: http://kevincasha.com/blog/beyond-borders-the-storytelling/ http://kevincasha.com/blog/beyond-borders-perspectives-on-migration/ Kevin Casha

World Photography Day 2016

MIPP Events

The MIPP and Hilltop Gardens would like to invite you to the following talk on TRACING MALTA’S PHOTOGRAPHIC HERITAGE. The session will deal with Malta’s historical wealth were photography is concerned.

This event is open to the general public on a first-come-first served basis. Attendance is strictly by booking through courses@mipp-malta.com by the deadline of the 15th of August.

After the talk, you are invited to join us for lunch at Hilltop Gardens’ restaurant (menu is attached). All options are open, so one can attend just the talk (which is free) and/or the lunch (which is at cost at €18). Lunches need to be pre-paid by the 15th of August.

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Exhibit Review: Masaharu Sato “Tokyo Trace”, Hara Museum, Tokyo Article & Photos by Tomoko Goto

I spent late March and April in Japan this year, as the entire country was being

transformed through the uplifting cherry blossom season. Besides visiting my family and friends, I was looking forward to absorbing the exciting Tokyo art scene.

I usually visit about 10 museums and galleries when I’m in town, and the Hara Museum is always a highlight. If you’d like to check out the current art scene in Japan, then this place should be at the top of your list. I’ve seen works by Sophie Calle and Mika Ninagawa there, and many more.

Located in a quiet residential district of Shinagawa, the Hara Museum is one of the oldest contem-porary art galleries in Japan. It was originally built as a private mansion in the Showa period, and the grounds are an oasis of peace inside one of the world’s largest cities. If you go there, be sure to wander around the beautiful Japanese garden.

Exhibition Review

This time the Hara was showing Masaharu Sato’s “Tokyo Trace”. And it was one of the highlights of my entire trip.

Sato is best known for a unique form of animation that he creates by carefully tracing actual video images and photographs. He shoots digital images of ordinary scenes and then uses a software pen on his computer to re-draw them, one frame at a time. Each work retains a photographic base, but some parts look sightly different or “off ” from reality.

The first room featured “Calling,” two short films that Sato created in Japan and Germany. The film moves through a number of scenes. In each one, a phone is ringing on and on, but there’s no one to answer it. Despite the visible absence of people, you feel a strong human presence from the ob-jects in these spaces: a steaming cup of coffee, a running shower, half empty beer glasses in a karaoke room. You feel the caller’s alienation from society, his aloneness and longing for human contact, and it makes the audience feel helpless as well.

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In another major work called “Tokyo Trace,” only a specific part of each image is re-drawn. On one screen we see a woman taking a dog for a walk. The woman is animated, but the dog is not. But take a look behind that screen and you’ll see the flipside: the exact same video, but this time it is the dog and its leash which are traced. In flipping our perspective, Sato completely changes the way we understand this simple everyday scene.

Another video brings us to a typical park. Everything in the frame is still like a photograph, except for one of the swings. It’s traced, slightly buzzing image moves slowly back and forth.

At first glance you think you’re looking at a video or a photograph. And then you realize that some-thing is off. Your eye gradually picks up on the fact that part of the image is animated, and you can’t stop looking at it because this traced part attracts your attention, and it even begins to look more ‘real’. The effect of this gave me an uneasy feeling.

As I went through Sato’s works one by one, my brain shifted the way in which I processed the im-ages. Those fictional parts became more significant than the rest of the factual parts. And this strange shift in perspective continued after I left the museum. As I walked back toward Shinagawa station, I started seeing animated flowers along the sidewalk, and a passerby crossing the street seemed to flicker just like Sato’s traced subjects.

Sato developed this technique during the 10 years that he lived in Germany. The act of ‘tracing’ be-came a ritual that brought him closer to an unfamiliar place. He says

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that he felt he could connect to the objects through the act of tracing them. Maybe that’s why his works give the viewer a melan-choly feel?

I’ve been an expat for more than 20 years, and so I understand how it feels to be the perpetual out-sider. Photography helps me connect to the community and the people around me, just as the act of tracing helped Sato to identify what was important to him in a foreign environment where he felt totally invisible.

Everyone paints the world in his own way in order to understand the self. And Sato suggests that maybe we’re living within layers of traced illusions that float up from our own imagination, giving emphasis to the outside according to our own interior worlds.

To see some of Masaharu Sato’s work, please visit: masaharu-sato.tumblr.com/ Videoclip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho4fWB3A2KE

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Istanbul the European/Asiatic City

Article & Photos by Martin Agius

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n March 2106, thanks to Turkish Airlines, I had the fortune to be invited to visit Istanbul in Turkey. It has always been my desire to visit this fascinating country.

Istanbul is historically known as Constantinople, it is the most populated city in Turkey. It is divided partly between Europe and Asia. A city with a mix of different cultures and history that dates back hundreds of years. Perhaps the most known history is the Byzantine and Ottoman period. It is mainly a Muslim country, however one can also find Orthodox and Christian churches.

We visited places such as Bosphorus bridge, the Marmara Sea, the Dolmabahce Palace, Camica Hill, Golden Horn, Fener Greek Patriarchate and many other places. A highlight of the trip was a cruise on the Bosphorus sea where we could fully

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appreciate the beauty of the two continents, on one hand you have the Asian side and on the other hand the European side. Visiting the spice market and the Grand Bazaar was also unforgettable and provided a interesting and captivating insight into the everyday life of the Turkish nation.

S The Spice market has eighty-five shops that vary from spices, Turkish Delight and all other imaginable sweets, jewelry, souvenirs, dried fruits and a variety of nuts.

The Grand Bazaar is an indoor shopping center with three thousand shops and is iconic and famous with tourists who visit this beautiful city.

As a photographer I had a feast of subjects to capture, from landscape to architecture to anything one can imagine but mostly I love to document people in the streets. They are the people who make the culture and history of a country more fascinating apart from its obvious natural beauty.

Upon our arrival at Istanbul we were taken around this beautiful country. At first I did not have an exact idea what kind of people I am going to find and how they will react when they see a somebody taking their photo. What struck me was how

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friendly the people are, always smiling. Most of them know English and they are very helpful. What amazed me most was the fact how they invent any kind of thing to sell products and earn their living; some use a small carriage, a cart, a tiny portable kiosk, or a wall in a subway, a wooden box to sell lottery tickets and all other things imaginable. The few beggars that I saw, where mainly Syrian refugees who entered Turkey as immigrants. Something that interested me is that most shops remain open until well after midnight.

Once I began to take photos of people’s, I began to see their first reactions. There were people who did not mind, others smile or even pose or dance for you and sometimes, but only rarely you get to see their body language which clearly shows they are not pleased.

One can encounter many stray cats and dogs in the streets and some cats even make it inside museums! However, even stray dogs are pierced and recorded with a tag in their ears. Even though they are not owned by anyone, the society takes care of these dogs and cats and food for them is in abundance.

The four days spent in Turkey were unforgettable for all the right reasons. I was also very pleased with the resulting photos that I managed to capture. My trip was so positive that I will surely return to Turkey and I am actually already making plans for my next visit.

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OUT AND ABOUT

August Events CHINESE STYLE

China National Academy of Painting`s Exhibition of Fan Paintings Venue: China Cultural Centre, 173 Melita Street, Valletta Dates: July 11- August 9, 2016 Monday - Friday (except public holidays) 8:30 am to 12:30 pm Free Admission

Supported by: Bureau of External Relations, Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China

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THE CURATORIAL SCHOOL Dates: 29th August - 2nd September Venue: Valletta Join Valletta 2018 at The Curatorial School (29th August-2nd September 2016): a one-week intensive lecture programme featuring leading curators and experts from major international arts institutions. The theme for this year’s Curatorial School is CURATING THE NEW. By bringing together international and local perspectives, this year’s programme asks: What is the meaning of the ‘new’ in contemporary art and curatorial practices?

The Curatorial School’s programme will explore a variety of topics that are highly relevant to practitioners and students today, including: — the commissioning of new work from artists; — the re-staging of historical exhibitions; — the negotiation of ideas between artists and curators; — the use of new media in exhibitions, artistic autonomy and the ‘uses’ of art; — locally engaged art projects; — the rhetoric of immateriality in contemporary art; — references to many specific exhibitions and international venues.

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GOZO CERAMICS FESTIVAL 2016 Location: Xlendi Bay Xlendi, Xlendi, Gozo Start Date: 6 August 2016 End Date: 6 August 2016

The Gozo Culture Office and Munxar Local Council assisted by event organizer and ceramist Joan Haber are organizing the Second Gozo Ceramics Festival which will take place at Xlendi Bay on the 6th August from 19.00 hrs onwards.

It will be a very animated evening activity buzzing with people, creativity, art and jazzy music. For the evening the Xlendi Administrative Committee will be illuminating the bay with the now famous magical fjakkolata. Around 30 of the very best Maltese and Gozitan ceramic artists will be working life in the main street of Xlendi, demonstrating different techniques such as throwing, coiling, modelling, slab building and also firing. A hands on experience for children will be led by experienced pottery teachers. Last year it was a great success, with a large number of participants making clay sculptures and ceramic crafts in the street. Visitors present were also very numerous including VIPs, Gozitans, Maltese and foreign tourists. Children concentrating on their creations were a pleasure to see, with the allocated table busy all the time. This year we built on last year’s success and on the sand we are having an installation made up of swans by artists and children with the proceeds from their sale going to Puttinu Cares.

We will be giving swan tokens to all who donate. The largest swan and much of the idea was put together by Sam Ciavola, Nirvana Azzopardi’s very artistic son who is a long time ceramics student. For this year’s edition we included the best thrower in Malta, Michael Ciappara who will be exhibiting his great talent in public for the first time. He will also be willing to help visitors, both adults and children to have a go on the throwing wheel. It is such a pity that this great talent is getting lost. Also included are sculptors who will be modelling in clay, which will later be fired in a gas kiln.

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CANON LENS RENTAL SERVICE

Lenses and camera bodies available for hire • • • • • • •

EF 100-400mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM EF 70-200mm 1:2,8 L IS II USM EF 24-105mm 1:4,0 L IS USM EF 24-70mm 1:2.8L USM EF 8-15mm f/4 L USM fisheye EOS 5D III body EOS 6D body

For full details and conditions visit www.avantech.com.mt or call on 2148 8800

Ask about our ‘Try before you buy’ scheme!

Bird Photography

MIPP Monthly Talk

Join us on the 2nd August for this interesting talk by Natalino Fenech.

For all those nature enthusiasts this will surely be an fascinating talk!

Time: 19:30hrs Venue: Le Meridien, St Julians

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CALENDAR Tuesday 2nd August

Bird Photography by Natalino Fenech 19:30 Le Meridien

Sunday 21st August

World Photography Day Events Tracing Malta’s Photographic Heritage by Kevin Casha 11.00 , Hilltop Village, Naxxar

Tuesday 6th September

Working with Raw Files - Sean Azzopardi 19:30 Le Meridien

Tuesday 4th October

Event to be announced 19:30 Le Meridien

Tuesday 1st November

PTYA Entries Assessement - Kevin Casha 19:30 Le Meridien

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mipp notices

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

We would like to remind you that we are now accepting payments for 2016 membership renewals.

By renewing the €40 fee (from 2016 it is €40 even for those that have been members for 5 or more years), you will have a chance to: · Get reduced rates to our courses and workshops · Become a qualified photographer with our three levels of qualification: Licentiate, Associate and Fellowship · Reciprocal photographic qualification with the best UK Institution · Informative monthly lectures and newsletters · Exclusive photographic competitions ONLY for MIPP members. .....and much more One may pay by either sending in a cheque to: “27, Moonlight, Giovanni Papaffy Street, Ta’ Paris, Birkirkara, BKR 4021, Malta”, together with the relative membership fee. (Cheques are to be made payable to “The Treasurer, MIPP” OR Pay directly from the BOV website: www.bov.com and log in to BOV internet banking with your Securekey.

OR When attending an MIPP Event.

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MIPP EVENTS IN PICTURES

Above: Geraldine Spiteri during the talk she gave in July

Above: Richard P Walton during his talk

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Above & Below: MIPP members shooting during a waterpolo match

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