Giola Cassar

‘Tessie’ is a photo book inspired by the personal stories of a woman who is 102 years old. Page by page, portrait by portrait, one is drawn into a biographical collage spanning over a century and beyond into a fabricated textual narrative. Tessie is here both the storyteller and the embodiment of all the places, objects and people she tells about.

The book is over 100 pages of carefully constructed sequences of original and found imagery; delicate portraits dialogue with composites from old family albums. It all unfolds from close ups of jewellery that have been passed down within the family. Throughout the book, a bilingual text runs parallel to the visuals.

This project is in collaboration with Glen Calleja and Adrian Gauci.

This project is supported by Malta Arts Fund - Project Support Grant.