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René Rossignaud: The First 13 Years . Kite Publishers, 2014.

How many artists publish their autobiography before they are 33 having lived intensively in the fast track for 13 years?

One must be a powerhouse of self-confidence, creativity and intellectual energy to publish not just one, but two.

That is what René Rossignaud , one of Malta’s best known photo-graphers did. He published a magnificent pictorial account of his life in Malta and beyond. He also wrote his story so far, promising a sequel to his first biography and story.

Rossignaud launched the book about his first 13 years as a professional artist photographer in November of 2014. To appreciate and understand Rossignaud’s art, one must first know something about him. He is a tsunami of energy and creativity. He has an abnormal vision, wider than his widest wide angle lenses .

He is unable to do only one thing at a time. He decides quickly what he wants. This is his problem or asset. His imagination gets the better of him.

By the time he looks at a panorama or an event or a subject to shoot, he has already shot and framed it. He hears the thunder before the lightning strikes. It takes him seconds to choose the best angle for capturing the moments or persons he wants to immortalise. He frames the pictures in his mind before he takes the photos.

Rossignaud is a storm chaser but even nature seems slow. The lightning storm over St Julian’s (pp 24 and 25) is a proof of this. He can shoot what the rest of us do not see. He shows us what is not there. He brings to life a city at night when no one is in sight.

A must to have in every school library

His classic photo in sepia of the Valetta bridge bar (p87) is living proof of what makes Valletta a gem of history. If one listens attentively to this photo, one can hear the happy customers laughing and chatting even long after they had all gone home and the bar had closed.

A two-page photo spread of the Salina Coast Road is difficult to describe technically. It looks more like the place where the first human landed on the moon than a place on earth. Thousands have walked or driven along the Salina coast over centuries but no one saw what Rossignaud did.

Those who know this young artist know him as fearless. He is restless when he is in calm surroundings. He looks for trouble spots. His book section on war is a living memory of the recent worst trouble in the war-torn countries.

The photo I pick is of the Israeli conflict in Gaza (p196). A young boy is standing on the edge of a large bomb crater in the middle of a lush turf area. The crater is full of water and the child is trying to make sense of this senseless situation. Rossignaud manages to make us hear the thoughts of this child.

A black and white photo (p230), shot in Pokhar in Nepal is as mysterious as it is a masterpiece in chiaroscuro. The photographer has travelled to places near and far. He shoots big cities. He has been where very few of us ever hope to go.

Finally, this photographer of nature, storms, war, concerts and more is also a photographer of man and women. I cannot comment on all.

His cavalcade of VIPs is vast. Amazing how this young man has met so many of them already. I choose the one photo of theMaltese artist who is known all over the world, tenor Joseph Calleja (p141). Rossignaud immortalised the tenor singing in his full grace, being applauded by another artist of world renown.

This book is a must to have in every school library. Anybody who is creative or has art at heart should study it. I believe that Rossignaud will become our Joseph Calleja of photography.