VISIONS

It's been a busy time these past months which goes some way to explaining why this blog's been neglected for so long, apart from posting stories I'd written for my newspaper and a couple of audio slideshows, my first proper attempts at doing them. I have an exhibition about the L'Aquila earthquake on at the moment, but I'll write about that another time.

Coursework these past months has all been taken up with photo essays. After doing a number of smaller picture essays during my travels in Uganda and the Italian earthquake zone, (my submitted photo essays during tutorials showed me very clearly that I need to work on my editing skills - it didn't take me long to realise I was often including the wrong pictures and leaving out some good stuff), I moved on to a more in depth photo essay. I was tipped off to the subject matter by the TV programme Xarabank. Since then, for the past three months, I've been documenting what's happening at the hill of Borg in-Nadur, outside Birzebbugia, in the south of the island, where a visionary/stigmatic has been leading prayer meetings and seeing apparations. It's been interesting and is probably a project I'll keep revisiting on and off over the coming months, though it will of course have to shift downwards on my list of priorities. I'm planning on moving on to something else for my big final project which will be shot over several months - actually I started shooting it ages ago, though for purposes of the MA course I'll keep it restricted to what I've shot since starting the course.

I learnt a lot from this project I called VISIONS, primarily the value of patience,and sticking with a story in the long term, even if at times one almost despairs at getting the sort of shots one needs (there were a couple of occasions when I considered dropping the project altogether and moving onto something else, but both my tutors John Easterby and Homer Sykes convinced me to keep at it). I learnt the value of really discussing pictures in a profound way with my peers (they know who they are!),of blending into the surroundings, letting people get used to my presence, getting to know people so they can let me have a peek into their lives. Admittedly, I got off to bad start in that respect, as in the first minutes of my first visit there, I was standing right where the apparations are supposed to take place, much to the horror of many people present!

One interesting technique I picked up from Peter Fraser during a tutorial was - once I got to the location, I sat down and closed my eyes, and just listened to sounds around me. Peter had suggested doing this for about twenty minutes, I lost all sense of time and carried on for forty. Opening my eyes after that long stretch, I started to see things in a different way from the norm (I did this on one of my later visits), the pictures I took were different from the usual stuff, and though none of them made the final edit as they didn't quite fit in with the rest of the set, I still think they're some of the more interesting images. Naturally it's not the sort of thing one can do when covering a news assignment, but it's certainly something to consider doing more often.

There are still huge gaps in VISIONS, but access to some things I needed to shoot has proven to be next to impossible, though there have been some positive indications that that may change for the better sometime soon. That's one of the things which is motivating me to continue monitoring this story. The door hasn't been opened to me, but it seems the window has... so I might get there eventually. It's taken a long time for the inner circle of people involved in this to come to trust me, to accept me - in this regard, my working for the biggest newspaper on the island worked against me, as they have a deep distrust of the media, having been ruthlessly attacked by some sections of it in the past. They've now understood this is something I want to follow in the long term, and that I haven't been doing this as a newspaper assignment. At the same time though, I'm not keen on the occasional suggestion that it's ok to shoot something as long as it's just for an MA assignment but not for publication. I don't see the sense of that - out in the real world, it's always going to be for possible publication, isn't it? So may as well get it right to start with.

These events will probably carry on for a very long time, so in a sense, there's no rush. In the meantime, I'll look deeper into how to widen the scope of the story, build on the trust I've garnered, meet more people in their homes and so on.

Re the story itself, whether it turns out to be true or just the result of fraud, deceit or some form of mental illness, shouldn't affect the importance of the work I'm producing. It remains something that needs to be documented journalistically because it has anthropological, historical, social and religious value.

So, what is VISIONS all about?


Once a week, come rain or shine, a growing number of religiously devout people walk up a narrow slippery path to what was once a Bronze Age settlement at the top of a small hill of Borg in-Nadur (meaning ‘group of stones on a hill in an archaic Maltese dialect). They come out of religious piety and a good dose of curiosity to see and listen to Angelik Caruana, a telephone operator in his early 40s, and now a visionary and stigmatic, who claims to receive apparitions from guardian angels and the Mother of God, who he calls The Lady.

What first started as a private matter at home in 2006, with a statue of the Blessed Virgin shedding tears of blood (now kept away from prying eyes due to ongoing scientific investigations), soon became a growing phenomenon. The apparition, visiting Caruana on a regular basis, told him to go to the hill of Borg in-Nadur as that is where she wanted to appear in future. A cross was erected at the spot indicated, and that has now become the focal point of the activities.

The devotees, many carrying chairs and stools, come to the hill to pray, to recite the Rosary, and to listen to any messages from The Lady passed through Caruana. They also hope to see a miracle for themselves, such the sun spinning on its axis and descending on them before retreating again; a vision of The Lady appearing in the sun; a Eucharist host appearing on the palm of Caruana’s hand out of nowhere. Unusual shaped clouds become supernatural visions. Because they are told it won’t hurt their eyes, they spend several minutes, practically unblinking, staring into the setting sun in the hope of seeing something.

At the end of the prayer meeting, several pilgrims go to the cross, to touch it, to ask for blessings, or to put a note or a photo of a departed loved one in between the rubble stones.

Caruana is surrounded by an entourage of “chosen ones” who include a spiritual advisor, his wife and a small number of friends. They are the only people allowed at the foot of the cross during the apparitions (apparitions of The Lady, angels, and occasionally - of hell), with one exception – a psychiatrist who is closely monitoring the case, carrying out scientific investigations, looking out for anything that might indicate fraud, deceit and mental illness. The investigations remain ongoing.

Once a month, the apparitions also take place on Malta’s sister island, Gozo.

Caruana also claims to receive the stigmata every Friday afternoon, when he goes rigid in a crucified position on his bed, and marks form on his hands and feet. It remains a very private moment however, strictly off limits to all except the “chosen ones.”

The Church authorities have yet to pronounce themselves on the matter, waiting for the results of scientific, psychological and theological investigations. In the meantime, it takes the position that nobody is obliged to believe in apparitions, even if they are officially recognised, but if it helps people in their faith and daily life, then they shouldn’t be rejected.





VISIONS - Images by Darrin Zammit Lupi