Valley of Destruction

(2020-2022)

In On Photography Susan Sontag writes: “Cameras began duplicating the world at that moment when the human landscape started to undergo a vertiginous rate of change: while an untold number of forms of biological and social life are being destroyed in a brief span of time, a device is available to record what is disappearing.”

Destructive forces of the unregulated Maltese construction boom, manifested through annihilation of the natural landscape, turn the recording described by Sontag into a disturbing exercise.

The Wied Qirda valley is a protected natural heritage site which also serves as a symbol of the lack of regulation of the construction boom in Malta. In early 2020, the valley witnessed the construction of a bridge – built without a permit – for the benefit of a local lawyer and government consultant. This illegal eye sore created serious harm to the ecology and biodiversity of the area. Ironically, the name Wied Qirda translates into ‘valley of destruction’.

When natural landscape is in danger, preservation of its image on a photosensitive material seems to be a pointless act of desperation. Photographic records of the environment will not save it from degradation but can at least carry a message for the future generations showing them what has been lost due to human destructive activity.