Culture through the camera lens

As part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, 26 youths from different international communities residing in Malta have come together to create a photographic exhibition that explores how culture and national heritage influence people's perceptions of how they look at their birthplace and the direction in which they are headed.

This project is being led by Christopher Tribble, a documentary photographer, and local photographer Patrick Fenech.

In the past week young people from Malta and the Maltese-Arab and Maltese-Indian communities, together with youths hailing from China, Eritrea, Egypt, Italy and Sudan got together and received training in the basic techniques of photography, and will now be guided to take photographs based on their perception of Maltese culture.

One of the participants, Francantonio Cauchi Cuschieri, said: "Young people might find it difficult to interact with others from different cultures, but through the project we are not only breaking down cultural barriers, but integrating our common love of photography"

One of the organisers, Toni Attard said: "This is just the beginning as these workshops will continue to develop further in the next four months, which will result in an exhibition to be held in September 2008".

Around 450 images resulting from these workshops will be brought together to form a "whole" picture highlighting perspectives of all the participating communities.

Dr Tribble's visit was sponsored by the British Council (Malta). His portfolio of work spans the UK, France, China, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Sri Lanka, and Poland.

The 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue is an initiative of the European Union with co-funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture and support from the National Lottery Good Causes Fund.

St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity is the national coordinating body for the Intercultural Dialogue year supported also by Atelier Culture Projects which are acting as project coordinators.