I have always considered photography to be an art which goes far beyond the pointing of a lens and the clicking of a button. However, thanks to a social media generation armed with camera phone and endless Instagram filters, many feel that they are more than equipped to take ‘professional’ photos of everything, from their meals to their lavatories.
This has had the dual effect of tarnishing the photographic sphere, while really separating the wheat from the proverbial chaff. Indeed, now, more than ever before, if you’re unable to bring depth to your work no one will buy into what you’re selling.
When addressing the issue of creating meaningful artistic expressions capable of generating reactions, with particular reference to photography, I’ve always considered food photography to be one of the hardest genres to approach, simply because of the subject at hand.
After all, an apple or a glass of milk is hardly going to be as captivating as the entrancingly intense look which can be seen in Steve McCurry’s Afghan Girl, or the unabashed, unconcealed horror of the effect of war which Nick Ut’s The Napalm Girl brought to the Western world.
Despite the fact that I had somewhat mentally prepared myself for the inevitable limitations of the subject on review, I was pleasantly surprised by Sean Mallia’s Gastrografija.
When it comes to food photography, the classic components of light, composition and colour serve a different purpose than they would in more dynamic forms of photography, their main purpose being to evoke an awakening of the senses upon immediate, superficial review of the photograph at hand.
Tableaux of perfectly placed food in the most vibrant colours imaginable
Mallia was not only able to establish this, but he was able to give his photos a lingering quality which made the viewer question all the hidden facets of what they were seeing. It became increasingly clear that the photographs displayed could be roughly divided into two categories – the purely editorial and the more profound and expressive.
Apart from the Sensory Bliss photos which provided tableaux of perfectly placed food in the most vibrant colours imaginable, Mallia paid a special homage to crustaceans with his crab and lobster offerings. Despite the fact that these sea creatures are far from attractive, they looked almost vulnerable as they blended in with their sand coloured backgrounds.
The tentacles of representation reached even deeper with the exhibition’s focal piece which was a fish wrapped in newspaper.
In keeping with his multi-layered approach, Mallia did not just use any old headline to bundle his fish in and, in fact, there appeared to be a very thought-provoking nod to the distressing migrant situation, which has seen hundreds of asylum seekers lives being lost at sea. Juxtaposed unsmilingly against a blood red backdrop, there was little doubt left as to what metaphor the fish was portraying.
Indeed, while at first glance every photo seemed to be almost harmless in its perfect composition, a taking in of the collection altogether revealed a sense of hyper-controlled compositions, in sharp contrast to the elements of chaos and turbulent transition. This aspect came out most in the Order and Disorder photos.
With perfectly placed cereal boxes positioned in parallel lines to each other, one would be forgiven for thinking that they were looking at a Kellogg’s advert, yet in the photograph’s adjacent pair, the same cereals boxes lay splayed, destroyed and jumbled together. I found this particular image interesting, describing many people’s inner struggles with appearances, reality and the contradictions that can be found both within as well as without.
Even more poignant was the fact the subject photographed, after all, is wholesome breakfast cereal. This metaphor was further extended to a milk carton which appeared to be in perfect condition in one photo and completely crushed in another.
Undeniably, the collection was defined in more ways than one by a duality of sorts, a sense of yin and yang where order was unable to exist without its darker and more interesting twin. Mallia has effectively created a world where all is not as it seems, thanks to his manic attention to detail and what appears to be a pouring of himself into his work. Gastrografija is not only an homage to the fabulous world of food, but it also shows the photographer’s gentle breaking away from the editorial work he is so well-known for, into a sometimes darker and more intimate place.
Gastrografija does not only provide a feast for the eyes but is also thought provoking... a very promising debut.
Gastrografija runs at Palazzo De Piro, Mdina, until January 31.