Photographs and reality, facts and opinions

Unfortunately, it seems that Karl Consiglio (Hiding Away Tigné Construction, August 19) does not understand the significance of the focal length of a lens that is used to take a photograph.

The longer the focal length the larger the background appears compared to the foreground.

A telephoto lens, say 200mm, as was used to take the photo that appeared on the front page of the Times of Malta of August 11, makes the background, in this case the apartments on Tigné Point, much larger in relation to the foreground, in this case North Street in Valletta, than appears to the human eye.

The focal lens that best approximates the human eye is that with a focal length of just under 50mm; any photographer knows this, and will select a focal length depending on the effect desired.

In my photograph (Valletta's World Heritage Status, August 17) I wished to portray what the unaided human eye really perceives. There is a big difference between facts, which are inalienable, and opinions, which may differ.

My letter was not a complaint; my letter was a correction of the report that made it to the front page of The Times, accompanied by a misleading photograph. My point was not whether the Tigné Point "luxury apartments" are attractive or otherwise - that is opinion.

My point was that the facts were (a) that it is absolutely not true that Unesco had said anything about Valletta losing its World Heritage status, as a result of the Tigné apartments or for any other reason; and (b) that the photograph published on the front page of The Times did not represent the true impact of the same apartments on the streetscape of Valletta, as the caption tried to imply.

Mr Consiglio is invited to ignore my photo and to take a walk down Old Mint Street, or Old Bakery Street, or Republic Street, and look towards Sliema and Gżira at each intersection, to see whether I am saying the truth or not.

The point that North Street is not very well frequented is a relevant one because, of all the streets in Valletta, this is practically one of only two streets down which one can see the apartments in question, and because one has to work very hard, as I did, to find it.

I fail to understand why Mr Consiglio should find the truth so amusing.