Isle Landers is, for many, an exhibition of pictures of migrants, or at best, refugees, but for Darrin Zammit Lupi, these are photographs of people with stories to tell. Sarah Carabott speaks to the Times of Malta and Reuters photographer ahead of tomorrow’s opening and book launch.
A child migrant – one of hundreds featured in Darrin Zammit Lupi’s book Isle Landers – sits on an AFM boat as it berths at Haywharf in 2008. The accompanying Isle Landers photographic exhibition opens tomorrow at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta.“Every person in these photographs has been through a trauma that most people in Malta, and the rest of the West, wouldn’t even dream of in their worst nightmares,” Mr Zammit Lupi says, standing before a photo of 106 people stranded on a dinghy between Lampedusa and Libya.
Probably one of the largest photographic prints in Malta, it shows a group of sub-Saharan Africans who ran out of water and had only one life jacket between them.
To our right, Mohammed Ilmi Adam’s piercing stare, an image published worldwide, has been hung up prominently and is the first photo that catches the eye of those visiting the exhibition at St James Centre for Creativity, Valletta.
The 41 photographs, including six from the National Museum of Fine Arts collection, were chosen from thousands that Mr Zammit Lupi has taken over the past 10 years.
Together with its accompanying book, the exhibition documents these refugees’ journey from rescues at sea to life in detention camps and bidding farewell to this island before being resettled in the US and Europe.
“When I was in Sixth Form and decided I wanted to become a professional photojournalist, I dreamt of travelling abroad to follow big stories.
“I still went abroad, but soon realised that the biggest story of all was in my own backyard. I felt it is a story the world should know about,” he adds.
I soon realised the biggest story was in my own backyard
The boat migration of thousands of people has become a common sight for many, but for Mr Zammit Lupi, each migrant he captured on camera had a different story to tell.
His journey dates back to December 1998 when a Russian survey ship rescued around 50 migrants and brought them into Grand Harbour.
“Through the years the migration issue was picked up by the international media, but people soon lost interest as the arrivals became quite frequent.
“I took it upon myself to try to come up with something different with every arrival.”
Some of the photographs in the exhibition have become iconic, including the haunting picture of Hamad Alroosan, the fair-haired boy snapped by Mr Zammit Lupi staring through the window of a Maltese police bus, which captured the world media’s attention.
Another one shows Armed Forces of Malta soldiers tossing bottles of water to a group of around 180 people on a dinghy.
Through his photos, Mr Zammit Lupi hopes to evoke some emotional response. He wants people to turn up at the exhibition and just think about the lives of those captured on camera.
Curated by Fabrizio Mifsud Soler, Isle Landers is supported by the Malta Arts Fund and UNHCR. The exhibition, hosted by St James Cavalier, Valletta, opens to the public on Saturday and runs till January 4. The book will be available for sale from Saturday.
http://islelanders.com