Bursting with exquisite visuals by Daniel Cilia and explanatory text by Vincent Zammit, the first two volumes of The Cultural Legacy of Malta & Gozo are now available. Ramona Depares takes a journey through the multi-faceted charm of our heritage.

The attractions of our islands are plenty, and no one is in a better position to appreciate them – and record them – than a professional photographer.

This is exactly what Daniel Cilia has done with his new series of books that bring together the beauty of Malta and Gozo, from the most iconic scenes to the most obscure locations only afficionados of our Melitensia would be familiar with.

Cilia is already well known as one of Malta’s prime visual documentators. From temples to beaches and palazzi, he has shot, and published, it all.

The new series – which as the blurb tells us, aims to bring “the richness of our cultural heritage through a collection of beautiful photographic books” to life – goes a step further by grouping individual themes in separate books, thus making things considerably easier for the collector.

A beautiful addition to any collection, whether you’re into feasts, temples and Maltese heritage in general, or you are just a fan of inspiring photography

The first two publications, The Village Feast and The Neolithic Temples, have already been released. The plan is to release a new publication with every season, with future titles including themes like Mdina, Churches and Cathedrals, The Knights of St John, Monasteries, Traditions, Harbours, Museums & Exhibitions and more. The idea is to release the whole series of 10 books over a two-year period.

As one would expect from a concept created by Cilia, the books are heavily visual, with text being kept to a minimum.

What there is, however, is kept light and to the point, to appeal not only to the historian or the academic, but also to the lay person.

Written by historian Vincent Zammit, the text takes the form of short snippets that accompany particular photographs, offering insights, legends and even obscure facts most of us are likely to find surprising.

The Village Feast was the first book of the series to be released. The topic might sound like a cliché to some, especially to those who, like me, are not particularly keen on village feasts. Yet they remain, of course, an undeniably pivotal part of our culture.

Cilia’s book manages to portray not only the obviously beautiful aspects of this tradition – after all, you don’t really need to be a festa expert to appreciate the beauty of a pyrotechnics display in the sky – but also the more unusual shots that are not necessarily witnessed by the man in the street. The photo that is highly reminiscent of a crop circle is one such example – in reality, it depicts the cannon used to fire the aerial firework, something most of us have never seen.

The book also helps us look at scenes and images we are familiar with from a different perspective from the norm. The photo of the statue of Our Lady in Għajnsielem, being ‘flown’ up to its pedestal, is a case in point.

Cilia catches the statue in mid-‘flight’, set against a background of colourful confetti, an inky black sky and the illuminated bell tower right behind it. Definitely a more impressive viewpoint than your average festa-goer is used to seeing from the crowd-congested street below.

There are also those unique moments in time that Cilia somehow managed to capture, such as the fireworks barge that exploded during the feast of St Lawrence in Vittoriosa in 2006 – a potentially tragic incident that happily left no fatalities and that translated into a spectacular shot spread across two pages.

The second book, The Neolithic Temples, continues in much the same vein, bringing us those iconic shots of our temples that leave tourists across the world awestruck, while also presenting a variety of uniquely composed shots.

Like the Festi volume, this one also comes with a well-written introduction by Zammit that successfully gives the reader a simplified overview of our historic temples. The front cover lures you in immediately, with a shot of the main axis of the Mnajdra lower temple during the spring equinox sunrise.

The book covers the main temple sites of Ħaġar Qim, Skorba, Mnajdra, Tarxien, Kordin, Ġgantija and Ta’ Ħaġrat, and the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum.

Perhaps because I find myself more fascinated by temples than by village feasts, I found this volume leaves more of an impact than the other.

The subject matter, of course, lends itself to imp-osing and spect-acular photography. But even with these natural advantages, the shots are beauti-fully and creat-ively taken, offering a pers-pective that we don’t get to enjoy as ‘normal’ visitors to the temples.

Besides the shots of the temples them-selves, there is also a section dedicated to the statues and artefacts within the temples, as well as details from the construction work.

In short, these two volumes make a beautiful addition to any collection, whether you’re into feasts, temples and Maltese heritage in general, or you are just a fan of inspiring photography.

Proceeds from the sales of these books will go towards the St Patrick’s Salesian School in Sliema, and a third volume is expected to be released shortly.

All those who order four books, which will be released throughout the year, will be offered the fifth publication on a complimentary basis.

The books are not available from bookstores but can be ordered by calling 7986 5105 or by sending an e-mail to clomagbooks@gmail.com.

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