Capturing music on film
The combination of music and photography has an especial pull on Christine Muscat-Azzopardi's soul
She became a dedicated photographer after being wooed by the colours of Egypt way back in 2000, joined the ranks of Malta's leading professional image takers along the way and resolutely transformed herself into a devout photographer of travels and musicians. Perhaps it's because she places herself in the right place at the right moment; perhaps it's because she has the female intuition of recognising raw emotion when she senses it and immediately capturing it on film for posterity... Whatever the reason behind her photographic talent, Christine Muscat-Azzopardi has the uncanny ability of the rock & roll photographer - the music star photographer who tags along at all the major concerts and gigs, in constant search of an ephemeral musical moment to cling to.
Many of these ephemeral moments are displayed at her most recent exhibition which sees a small quantity of her pictures gracing the walls of the newest exhibition space on our art scene. Let The Music Play... is a select choice of photo prints, 47 in all, 32 of which are digital images, 15 are film.
"Some are colour, others are monochrome, but all are rigorously not manipulated. And I never, ever use flash. During concerts and festivals, initially I only took black and white pictures with conventional film. Eventually I began to experiment a bit more and as you will see I have also colour pictures here. Actually the monochrome pictures were originally in colour, but I reverted them to the black and white version which somehow gives the pictures another dimension. But surely, what you see here on these walls, is what I saw from where I was standing. "And most are very definitely up close!
Christine has something to explain about each and every picture and I walk around the varied artists and their widely divergent musical genre - from Malta's own Ira Losco, Tribali, and Ganni Zammit, to start off with, on to artistes of international standing like Roger Waters, Sting, Alan Parsons, Thabani, The Commitments, Claudio Baglioni, Ian Ritchie, John Schofield, Tania Maria...
The list goes on and gallery owner Stefan Borg Manduca is visibly excited about this latest show of talent to hang at B'Art. The son of veteran artist John Borg Manduca and nephew of world famous architect/ artist/poet Richard England, he has clinched a precisely founded black on white scenario to bring together the bounties of art, the joys of socialising and the thrills of musical sound.
Among the artists who have already exposed their works at this tiny art gallery are Richard England himself, the French artist Lauren Muller and an ever-innovative Gabriel Caruana. More are in the pipeline, but for now the gallery is happy to concentrate of Christine Muscat-Azzopardi's take on the music scene as Malta has experienced it over the past years.
"There's been a spurt of action around music with concerts of caliber happening every so often adding excitement all round, and then there is the Jazz Festival which is always good fodder for my camera. This type of photography is the most challenging of all, because pictures are taken in such a technically complicated setting. I am particularly happy with this fifth solo photographic exhibition. The last time I was this excited was when I found I had been chosen by the Malta Council for Culture & Arts to be one of the official photographers to record the first Notte Bianca in Valletta last October."
But she disarmingly fails to point out that her accomplishments also include several prizes and that this past year has seen her participating in different international photographic exhibitions namely in China, San Marino, Qatar, Sicily, Singapore and Austria. She also forgets that I know very well how successful her September 2006 visit to China was, when she represented the Malta Photographic Society at the 28th FIAP Biennial Congress - definitely a feather in her cap.
In her own words, "I forget the world and beyond when I am behind the lens... the thrill of zooming in on a face and catching an instant in time is unexplainable. I hide and lose myself behind the camera, in the teeming mass of jostling and screaming music fans, and the combination of music and photography produce an ultimate high which pulls at my innermost soul..."
• Let The Music Play runs at B'Art in Sliema until the end of the month. Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4-7.30 p.m.; Thursday 4-11 p.m.; Friday 4 p.m. till late; Saturday 8 p.m. till late.
Many of these ephemeral moments are displayed at her most recent exhibition which sees a small quantity of her pictures gracing the walls of the newest exhibition space on our art scene. Let The Music Play... is a select choice of photo prints, 47 in all, 32 of which are digital images, 15 are film.
"Some are colour, others are monochrome, but all are rigorously not manipulated. And I never, ever use flash. During concerts and festivals, initially I only took black and white pictures with conventional film. Eventually I began to experiment a bit more and as you will see I have also colour pictures here. Actually the monochrome pictures were originally in colour, but I reverted them to the black and white version which somehow gives the pictures another dimension. But surely, what you see here on these walls, is what I saw from where I was standing. "And most are very definitely up close!
Christine has something to explain about each and every picture and I walk around the varied artists and their widely divergent musical genre - from Malta's own Ira Losco, Tribali, and Ganni Zammit, to start off with, on to artistes of international standing like Roger Waters, Sting, Alan Parsons, Thabani, The Commitments, Claudio Baglioni, Ian Ritchie, John Schofield, Tania Maria...
The list goes on and gallery owner Stefan Borg Manduca is visibly excited about this latest show of talent to hang at B'Art. The son of veteran artist John Borg Manduca and nephew of world famous architect/ artist/poet Richard England, he has clinched a precisely founded black on white scenario to bring together the bounties of art, the joys of socialising and the thrills of musical sound.
Among the artists who have already exposed their works at this tiny art gallery are Richard England himself, the French artist Lauren Muller and an ever-innovative Gabriel Caruana. More are in the pipeline, but for now the gallery is happy to concentrate of Christine Muscat-Azzopardi's take on the music scene as Malta has experienced it over the past years.
"There's been a spurt of action around music with concerts of caliber happening every so often adding excitement all round, and then there is the Jazz Festival which is always good fodder for my camera. This type of photography is the most challenging of all, because pictures are taken in such a technically complicated setting. I am particularly happy with this fifth solo photographic exhibition. The last time I was this excited was when I found I had been chosen by the Malta Council for Culture & Arts to be one of the official photographers to record the first Notte Bianca in Valletta last October."
But she disarmingly fails to point out that her accomplishments also include several prizes and that this past year has seen her participating in different international photographic exhibitions namely in China, San Marino, Qatar, Sicily, Singapore and Austria. She also forgets that I know very well how successful her September 2006 visit to China was, when she represented the Malta Photographic Society at the 28th FIAP Biennial Congress - definitely a feather in her cap.
In her own words, "I forget the world and beyond when I am behind the lens... the thrill of zooming in on a face and catching an instant in time is unexplainable. I hide and lose myself behind the camera, in the teeming mass of jostling and screaming music fans, and the combination of music and photography produce an ultimate high which pulls at my innermost soul..."
• Let The Music Play runs at B'Art in Sliema until the end of the month. Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4-7.30 p.m.; Thursday 4-11 p.m.; Friday 4 p.m. till late; Saturday 8 p.m. till late.