A lot of the jewellery pieces that you have photographed for the Vanity, Profanity & Worship exhibition have rarely been seen before – was the process of photographing them akin to a rediscovery?

For me, it wasn’t a rediscovery as I had never been exposed to these objects before. It was, however, a pleasant discovery – it was very interesting to learn about the jewellery’s origins, design philosophy, purpose and method of manufacture, and to meet some of the fascinating people who currently own these items.

How does photographing inanimate and live subjects differ?

Not as much as you might think – a decision was taken to treat each piece like an individual portrait with very similar lighting to a human portrait – this was intended to bring out the character and uniqueness of each jewel. This is in contrast to using or creating a light tent, which is often used when shooting high-street-style jewellery images.

Inanimate subjects can also surprise, entertain and be difficult to photograph. Also, just like live ones, some are very photogenic and some are not. It’s quite common for photographers to specialise in people and still life photography – somehow, the disciplines are quite similar.

What makes macro photography such a difficult genre?

I don’t think it’s necessarily more difficult than any other genre. However, as it’s often like looking under a microscope, careful attention to detail is important. Very small changes in the angle of view or lighting can have a big impact on the final result.

In this case, we needed to establish a basic lighting set-up that would be good for the majority of the pieces – we had to photograph over 600 jewellery items, which meant we could not reset the lighting for each individual piece.

What elements do you need to control when shooting macro photography?

As with all photography, light is the major element – in this case, there were many jewels that had some areas which were highly reflective and others, on the same jewel, that were very light-absorbent. Moreover, the backgrounds needed to be pure white and solid black so careful control of the lighting was the main thing. Interestingly, we discovered that old diamonds are very light-absorbent.

Also, very small movements of the object or camera can blur the image – a sturdy tripod, delayed shutter release, highest flash shutter sync speed and a still object were essential.

How long did the process of shooting all the jewellery pieces take?

In total, we had 19 sessions. Photographing each piece was a three-stage process – first to hang and position the jewel using wire, expertly carried out by Joe Debono, acting under Michael Lowell’s direction, second to photograph the jewel, and third to remove the wires supporting the object in post-processing, the majority of which were done by our retoucher Arron McCarthy.

What specialised equipment did you use?

Apart from a macro lens, we used very mundane equipment like bits of wire, mirrors, clear Perspex, velvet, black, white card and tracing paper.

Maltese 19th century filigree bracelet.

Vanity, Profanity & Worship: Jewellery from the Maltese Islands is a Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti exhibition. It is being held at the Casino Maltese, Republic Street, Valletta, every day from 10am to 6pm (last entrance at 5pm) and on Fridays from 10am to 9pm (last entrance at 8pm).

A fully illustrated catalogue, featuring George Scintilla’s photography of each piece in the exhibition and containing articles on different aspects of jewellery history relating to Malta, is available for purchase from the exhibition ticket counter.