The pained expression and tear-stained cheeks of a young child is a powerful image to dwell upon, especially when it is the face of a stricken child captured at the moment of separation from her mother on landing in Malta in a boat of migrants.

The young girl's face told the story of her party's landing when 183 immigrants were rescued off Malta in mid-July.

This is but a single subject presented by The Times photojournalist Darrin Zammit Lupi in a photographic exhibition, aptly titled Isle Landers, and which will be launched tomorrow for Notte Bianca at Palazzo Ferreria (the Ministry of Social Policy), opposite the Opera House ruins in Republic Street, Valletta.

Mr Zammit Lupi is presenting 18 photos, taken over the past three years both for The Times and Reuters and which deal with the landings of migrants and asylum seekers in Malta.

This ongoing photo reportage documents different aspects and stages of migration, from the rescues at sea, to the landing and arrival, and life in detention and open centres.

Mr Zammit Lupi does not alter his photographs in any way, nor are any of the images staged. He does, however, make excellent use of intricate and delicate plays of light and shade, often achieving dramatic results.

In fact, narrow shafts of light are often the only means of discerning the happening in the photograph.

At times a pair of eyes shine out, at the spectator and at others gestures and actions dominate the larger part of the pictorial surface.

In fact, his frames are on occasion packed from corner to corner or conversely they can be almost minimalist.

In one instance, the photograph almost looks like an abstract work and only on close inspection do limbs, clothes and faces become immediately evident.

The exhibition includes some of Mr Zammit Lupi's most memorable photographs and also those which have caused many newspaper readers to stop, stare and ponder the situation of these people arriving and living in our country.

One particular work has even been exhibited worldwide and has earned him an award in a competition held by the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE).

The exhibition is organised by Appoġġ, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, as part of its project on the integration of asylum seekers into Maltese society.

This project is financed by the EU. The exhibition will run till next Friday.