Between Opportunity and Assimilation: Nineteenth-Century Italian Studio Photographers in Malta

During the nineteenth century, various established and aspiring photographers from Italy embarked on a journey towards the island of Malta – a crown colony of the UK from 1813 until 1964 – to open photographic studios, predominantly on Strait Street in the island’s capital city of Valletta, and to establish themselves as photographers. This article enquires into the hitherto underexplored role of Italian photographers in the history of photography in Malta, and delves into the photographic practices of Adelaide Conroy, Domenico Rosati and Stefano Lecchi. The article examines their diverse approaches to local Maltese photography and their transnational representation while situating their presence within a broader geopolitical and sociopolitical, cultural and institutional context, in which Maltese, British and Italian cultures coexisted. The author argues that these Italian photographers were not peripheral contributors but, rather, important figures that shaped, and were responsive to, the photographic culture which emerged within the island’s rich and complex political environment.