The Photos of Anthony Scerri
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All of Anthony Scerri’s pictures and ancillary information presented here on this website are the property and copyright of the Family Scerri and are not permitted for use in any physical or online form without permission.
My eldest brother Anthony Scerri was born in Hamrun Malta 29/6/1923 and after his primary and secondary schooling was in his first year of University when he was conscripted into the Royal Malta Artillery corps at the onset of WWII. He had progressed to the rank of Lieutenant when he was demobilized in 1947.
As a civilian he started running a stationery business with our father but right away took up the hobby of photography. At first he could only afford producing B&W pictures, lots of them, but at least because of this, our family has had the fortune of having extensive archives of photos. He also took plenty of contemporary views in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s concentrating on special occasions or particular places or subjects. He did his own developing, printing and enlarging, dabbling in chemical recipes and also producing the odd article to be published on British photography magazines of the time.
When colour photography was within his means, he started taking local views in colour and selling the negatives to be reproduced in Maltese calendars.
His friends with whom he consulted, were an established Maltese professional photographer Joseph Cassar and another semi professional who also had photos reproduced on postcards and calendars, Fr Frans Camilleri.
As for myself, he was my first mentor, buying me a box camera and teaching me the tricks of framing a picture etc, hints I have carried on into my art even nowadays.
When he visited us in Canada as soon as he retired, he had the luck of being here in the height of the Fall season with all the colours around him that he only saw in pictures previously.
He passed away in 2/12/1996 but will never be forgotten.
On this website I’m going to present his legacy, concentrating just on his early B&W photography, that is up to the mid 1950’s.
A tinted photo of Anthony when he was in the services. Taken by his close friend Joseph Cassar.
Most of the pictures presented here were painstakingly scanned from negatives by our nephew Noel Ciantar who then sent me all the archives and special information he had gathered and worked upon. Thanks a million Noel.