Tracing Malta’s photographic history

A public lecture by Kevin Casha entitled Tracing Malta’s Photographic Heritage will be held on Monday, 6 March at Santa Caterina d’Italia church, Valletta at 6.30pm under the auspices of the Department of the History of Art, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta.

The contents of the lecture will be based on Casha’s latest publication Photography in Malta: The History and the Protagonists. Photography in Malta fortunately saw light just one year after its introduction in Europe. In this visual presentation, Kevin Casha reviews some of the salient points of early Maltese photography and its protagonists. The fascinating account delves into the first French photographers who introduced the medium to the island, the early British practitioners who followed them, all the way up to the first Maltese studio and commercial photographers. The informative lecture, which stems from Casha’s recent landmark publication on the history of Maltese photography, saves for posterity a wealth of information on both local photography and its vintage photographers.

Kevin Casha is a professional photographer with a photography career spanning over 37 years. He is also involved in many other important facets of art and culture and apart from being one of the most awarded local photographers, both locally and internationally, he is a veritable reference point for Maltese photography.

His involvement in cultural spheres encompasses curatorial services, writing, co-ordinating the National Picture Archive, publishing and expertly teaching photography. He was behind the establishment (together with Stephen Vella) of the Higher National Diploma course in Photography at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology. This was the first serious local academic course in photography which has now gone up to degree level. Casha is a much sought after and respected international judge and lecturer with assignments having seen him at work in the United Kingdom, China, Kuwait, Ireland, Lithuania and other countries. He has been past president of the Malta Photographic Society (MPS) and current chairman and founder of the Malta Institute of Professional Photography (MIPP). To date, he is the only person to have been awarded the Honorary Life Membership of both top local photographic organisations for his contribution towards photography.

Among his major awards are the MIPP Photographer of the Year, the Malta Fashion Award for photographers and the MPS Photographer of the Year on no less than four occasions. He is a Fellow of both the MIPP and the Society for Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP); as well as an Associate of the Master Photographers Association of Great Britain. Other important milestones in his career have arrived from the Societies of Great Britain, who presented him with their highest accolade: the Master Photographer for his contribution to photography. In 2014, he gained a Masters in Contemporary Digital Art at the University of Malta. Casha was also founder member of the Birkirkara Visual Arts Group (BVAG) and elected the group’s president from its inception in 2010 until 2014. He was also past chairman of the Malta Trade Testing Board for photographers.

Locally, he has lectured on academic courses at the Institute of Art and Design, the University of Malta, Heritage Malta and numerous other schools and private entities and is Course director for the MIPP. His photography has been widely published, with no fewer than 16 books fully illustrated with his images. Casha has staged numerous one-man exhibitions in Malta as well as in Italy, London, Corsica, United States and Sicily. He regularly acts as curator on various collective photography exhibitions, projects and publications. Casha’s standing in the international scene was further attested when, in 2015, he was chosen not only as a main judge for The HRH The Prince of Wales’s Commonwealth Environmental Photography Award, but also as curator for the exhibitions held in Malta and appointed picture editor for the Out of the Blue book, published specifically for the occasion and launched during the CHOGM events in Malta.