Log in to hire Jon Michael

Jon Michael Anzalone

Photographer
   
Silent Cities
Public Project
Silent Cities
Copyright Jon Michael Anzalone 2024
Updated Jan 2017
Location Valletta
Topics analog, Europe, Malta, Photography, Street, Travel
"Somewhere with history, but small and isolated. We don't have to feel obligated to see anything."

My wife and I chose Malta for our honeymoon, mid-February. After months of the stresses of planning, she caught a flu or a virus on the first day abroad and spent most of the trip resting. "Go, go. Take the photos you couldn't take if we were out together. Let me see it that way."

So I walked for hours and days through the island, both joyful for my new future but lonely and missing the woman I wanted to spend the time with. As I wandered the metropolis of urban Malta, a city that spreads out from the fortress city of Valletta into dense villages, I realized it was quite a strange place. Whole towns and neighborhoods were abandoned. Maybe a seasonal livelihood? I don't know. But historic places, and areas with the full city-feeling sense, could be walked without seeing a single person. Stamp-maker shops boarded up, pigeon fanciers locked, red-domed churches quiet... 

The suburbs of Valletta, the capital, sprawls out across the country about the size of Staten Island, but it's the ancient town of Mdina who carries the name "The Silent City." Maybe that is the heart of the place.

I remember a quiet moment of my own, late in the trip. Victoria is sitting on the yellow stone crags of Dwejra. Waves are gently crashing. She is tired and resting from the trip here, still getting over the illness. She is looking into the Azure Window. It is a natural archway over the Mediterranean. I am watching her watch it, understanding the vastness of a peaceful, comfortable silence.

2013
5,526

Also by Jon Michael Anzalone —

Project

Kyrgyzstan

Jon Michael Anzalone / cholpon-ata
Project

Istanbul

Jon Michael Anzalone / istanbul
Project

Uzbekistan

Jon Michael Anzalone / uzbekistan
Project

Accelerat

Jon Michael Anzalone / sibiu
Project

Tbilisi

Jon Michael Anzalone / tbilisi
Project

Mahalle

Jon Michael Anzalone / istanbul
Project

Armenia and Karabakh

Jon Michael Anzalone / Armenia
Project

Svaneti

Jon Michael Anzalone / mestia
Project

Around Europe

Jon Michael Anzalone / sighisoara
Project

The Great Country

Jon Michael Anzalone / mumbai
Project

NO LAWS

Jon Michael Anzalone / Bozeman
Project

Singles

Jon Michael Anzalone / new york city
Silent Cities by Jon Michael Anzalone
Sign-up for
For more access