In very recent years the image of the traditional Maltese home has been deconstructed and fetishised by young, filter savvy Intsa-glamourati. Maltese tiles, vintage typography, and 'things made out of wicker' have become beacons of national nostalgia and domestic pride. The young and fashionable have revived these elements of Maltese interiors and made them their own, pairing them with of-the-moment lighting trends and contemporary furniture staples. But whereas this generation of new age home makers have converted these motifs into sentimental tokens of what was, one local photographer has concerned herself with the unedited, unironic, and untouched reality of the way many Maltese homes actually look.
Before she began her career in photography, Therese Debono worked as a draughtsperson. She spent a lot of her time surveying people's houses and so became very well versed on typical local interiors. As a result her former, more utilitarian trade has filtered into her current work - a lot of which is dedicated to photographing happy couples on their wedding day. This new vocation has brought her back into people's homes, fuelling her fascination with the way they are decorated.
"When I shoot weddings I also document my surroundings - to give context to my stories. The interiors I shoot are never modern or newly refurbished. I am attracted to the mundane and older stuff," Debono says, "stuff which others might dismiss as unaesthetically pleasing. But it's actually these things which tell a story".
In her photographic series, Maltese Interiors, Debono has captured a collection of spaces which speak volumes of the idiosyncratic, traditional Maltese home. Her focus is on parts of the home saturated with icons, kitsch decor and what she describes as "stillness".
"My favourite part of shooting this series is the stories that home owners tell me - what I uncover about the people living there. First I like to explore a place to assess what's there and how to best approach the subjects. I'm not an antique connoisseur, so what interests me is why people would have chosen a particular set up over another. Sometimes it's the sheer mix and match of artefacts which make or break a composition."
Composition is a keyword when discussing Debono's work on this subject. Her stark and uncompromising angles juxtapose with the hyper-embellishment of her subjects, elevating them - in visual terms - to the sacred. The photographs' resolute symmetry transforms a vanity table into an altar, a bridal bed into a crypt, a bedroom into a convent - at least in spirit. These consecrated spaces are in turn adorned with actual religious paraphernalia, adding ever more mysticism to Debono's work.
"Religious icons are a top favourite amongst the Maltese," she says. "Everywhere I've visited I've come across many icons, be it statues or holy pictures. They're there in the living room, corridor, bedrooms. They're everywhere".Debono describes her instinct to shoot in a "deadpan methodology" as the best way in which to shield her own stylistic bias. Her aim is not to portray her commentary on the décor she encounters, merely to document it.
"I've never touched or re-arranged anything prior to the shots. Shooting front elevations and mostly from my height gives the viewers the closest perspective to how they would see it themselves if they were in the house," Debono explains. "Again, I might as well attribute this approach to 19 years working as a draughtsperson. Some of that training has rubbed off. Even though am drawn to imperfections, when it comes to certain compositions I know exactly how I want to portray something. Usually a head on straight shot works better than other shots for the work I do".
Even if Debono's process seems meticulous and visually strategic, her aim is less harnessed, and quite romantic. She is determined to offer a way into people's private world - one which exists within the undeniable parameters of class, domestic vanity, and advertised morality."These interiors tell a story and can give clues to what their owners have gone through, their beliefs, their loss, their happiness, and their tastes," she says. "I feel that people take pride in decorating their home because it is an extension of who they are".
Indeed, it's easy to take for granted just how integral to Maltese culture interior spaces are. Our time is mostly spent celebrating the beauty of the islands' natural, outdoor environment - the sea, the sand, the limestone. But the truth is that we are implicitly obsessed with the roofs that we build over our heads. Is-Salott (the main sitting room) has become a symbol for a broader understanding of Maltese culture - its meaning stretched to the territory of colloquialism and, most pervasively, social media. It's anemblem for how we conduct ourselves when we're around each other - a representation of constructed decorum which quickly breaks down and gives way to loud and unbridled social interaction.
"Sometimes entrances and living rooms are set out very elegantly or in an orderly fashion because it's the first room that guests visit, so 'it must be clean and in order, else people think we are careless'. But the clue is in the details," Debono insists."Sometimes artefacts are mismatched or from totally different styles. It's the quirky things that uncover more about the people living there rather than the ordinary details".
Her project, although approached with the clinical eye of a documentarian, is deeply personal. Not to Debono herself necessarily, but to the anonymous owners of the spaces she shoots. "I have to find a way of making home owners trust me," she emphasizes,"make them see that I am creating this project for research purposes and not to investigate their possessions".
The stillness which Debono describes in this body of work is drawn from this very desire to suspend her own tastes and aesthetic judgement and consider the objects in people's houses as part of a whole, balanced, yet enigmatic story. "Stillness comes from recognising what is in front of you, breathing in the sheer beauty of the photo I am about to frame - composing, snapping, and capturingthe stillness of a moment in time caught forever".
Maltese Interiorsdelves deeply into the lives of its ghost protagonists, the cultivation of a national aesthetic, and the difference between what is cute and what is common. It is the epic novel to the short abstract we've already seen emerge on the subject of local décor - the back story to what's happening on the fashionable feeds of Instagram and beyond. And it's pretty hard to put down.
Ann Dingli is an art and design writer. She runs think-like-it.com - a site discussing art, architecture, and design in a frank and easy-to-understand way.