No suits, please: Ivan Delia works for about six months and then spends some five months abroad, having decided to travel as much as possible.

Once a week or so, two teachers with a passion for photography roam the streets of the Maltese islands, striking up a conversation with any person who happens to catch their eye and snapping pictures.

The results are posted on the Facebook page which Stephen Buhagiar and Roderick Vella created called The People of Malta. It is a project that has been hailed as capturing the true essence of the Maltese people. The page follows the mould of the popular Humans of New York page, where photographs of different people are posted below a brief quote.

“The project nicely combines two hobbies of ours: meeting people and photography,” Mr Vella, 32, says.

Mr Buhagiar, 40, recounts how the idea originally kicked off as focusing on traditional crafts but gradually evolved into an artistic project with a much wider scope.

“We’re creating an album of people from all walks of life,” he says. “When someone stands out to us, we approach him or her and strike up a conversation. The result is a photograph accompanied by a quote of something – often striking in its simplicity – of what they would have told us.”

From foes to best buddies: Paul Cachia (left) first met Rupert Tabone when they argued over a parking space only to discover later they had much in common.

The page has drawn nearly 14,000 likes, delighting the subjects’ family members as well as Maltese living abroad, who feel that the shots allow them to keep abreast of the Maltese way of life.

One of their favourite pictures is that of an elderly woman, wearing a handkerchief around her head and carrying a wicker basket, whom Mr Buhagiar spotted in Nadur as she was walking to her farm.

“You just don’t find people like her anymore. I stopped her and she simply told me: ‘I live a beautiful life’. Her smile stood as testament to that.”

One of their favourite moments was when they spotted an elderly man returning to his Żabbar home, where he was greeted by his wife at the door. The couple had been married for nearly 60 years.

Mari and Grezzju got married nearly 60 years ago through a matchmaker.

The project nicely combines two hobbies: meeting people and photography

“Grezzju told us that they had met through a matchmaker,” Mr Buhagiar exclaimed. The man went on to reveal the secret to their long-lasting marriage: having “buckets of patience”.

Another favourite shot is that of a man standing by his bright blue-coloured door, wrapping a curtain around him.

This Nadur woman’s smile says it all: “I live a beautiful life.”

“Ivan Delia told us that he hated suits,” Mr Vella recalled. “He worked for about six months on maximum power and would spend the next five months or so abroad. He visited countries like Morocco, Thailand, India and Nepal. In the past, he used to just work and watch Travel Channel while dreaming of visiting the exotic places. We just sat enthralled at the stories he told us.”

Later in the day, the pair came across a man dragging a carrier who beckoned to them to snap his picture. He admitted he had not travelled outside Żabbar for a decade and did all his chores on foot.

On one of their roaming visits, two people chatting away instantly caught their curious eye. “One was an elderly man dressed in a suit and the other was a biker,” Mr Buhagiar recalled. “The contrast just jumped out at us.”

It turned out that the two had met when they argued about a parking space, with the man in the suit expressing frustration that it was being taken by a motorbike and the biker retorting that he paid his licence like everyone else. “Some time later, they ran into each other again, made peace, struck up a conversation and discovered they had a number of things in common.”