Malta in Transition
Guido Stilon

Malta in Transition: Guido Stilon

Malta Postal Museum, Valletta
11 February – 7 March 2020

Exhibition Curator: Letta Shtohryn
Artistic Director:
Andrew Alamango
Archivist:
Andrew Pace
Project Manager:
Margerita Pulè

Images by Guido Stilon (Grace Cilia Vincenti collection)

Special thanks to Grace and Albert Cilia Vincenti for their close involvement and assistance throughout this project. Also to Guido’s friends Gerald Montanaro Gauci, Rose Lapira and Mario Tabone for their input and discussions that helped us to select images for this exhibition.

Project supported by Arts Council Malta – Malta Arts Fund

Supported by APS Bank


In 2020 Magna Żmien produced the first exhibition of Guido Stilon’s work to be shown publicly in Malta. Since rediscovering his work in 2018, we have digitised 2,000 images from his collection of over 6,000 black and white 35mm negatives. In collaboration with his friends and family, a small number of these images were selected to portray the theme of ‘Malta in Transition’, capturing a period during the 1950s and 1960s when Guido was most active taking photographs in Malta.

His photography explores the urban spectrum that inhabited his home city of Valleta and in the towns, villages and countryside beyond. He also captures the expansion of industry and business as a post-independence solution to economic growth and also of traditional types of work in the countryside.

Guido’s ultimate desire was to document the people and practices that would inevitably be replaced in the near future by the march of progress. Yet, Guido’s perspective was one of genuine interest, not nostalgia. His gaze as a photographer captures his subjects without overpowering them with his own personality, presenting them as honestly as possible with kindness and respect regardless of their class and gender.

Guido’s work is now being seen again by a new generation, 45 years after his premature death. The quality of his photography should rightly place his name among the list of outstanding post-war Maltese photographers.

Malta in Transition, 11th February – 7th March 2020

Images by Elisa Von Brockdorff

Exhibition Opening, 8th February 2020

Images by Elisa Von Brockdorff