Map Conversations

Some photographs showing my map conversations with family and project friends.

Henry and Vanna Coppini, my grandparents (below) were given the task of re-drawing Valletta, the city they both grew up in and knew before, during and after WW2. During our conversation there was some confusion in relation to Valletta's street names. The city's streets have had their names changed twice in my grandparents lifetime. From the old Italian street names of their childhood (eg. Strada Reale), to the post-war British street names (Kingsway) and finally the Maltese independence-time names (Republic Street) most of us are familiar with... and so as they drew their map, they called each and every street by three names....

My father and project friend, Joe Gerada (below), was given the task of re-drawing the South of Malta. This conversation touched on the social divide between North and South. On the layered history of the islands, the marks left by former rulers and the rapid change the country is currently experiencing....


 Joran Rapa Manche (above) a project friend and fellow maltese emigre drew all he could remember of Malta from his London flat - repeating my original process of recollection...