susannah farrugia

photography


  1. il-ġebla 
  2. somewhere in the mediterranean
  3. backpacking south east asia: coming soon
  4. ongoing travelogue
  5. commissions


projects


  1. the architecture of inhabitation
  2. a living city: co-creating our human habitat
  3. the magic of temporality & fleetingness
  4. the network of resources
  5. the garden as therapy
  6. rituals in rock & clay
  7. the school beneath the hills
  8. contemporary boathouse 
  9. valletta power station
  10. lab / prototype
  11. matter make
  12. playscape


workshops


  1. eros in transgression @ re:easa
  2. cairn @ easa tourist
  3. day night day night day
  4. skalda


links


info ︎
index ︎
shop ︎
contact ︎

︎



about


susannah is a maltese architectural designer & photographer who graduated from the university of malta with a special interest in social architecture, spatial agency & inhabitation.

in her photography, she shoots a mix of 35mm film & digital.
etrenally inspired by the maltese islands & their geographical landscape, her work expresses the language of ancient rock, cystal waters, crusty sea salt tracing constellations on one’s skin & the warmth of the sun. the architectural compositions these elements naturally form & people’s interaction with this environment become moments of presence & wonder. she seeks to tell the story of the sense of home this little floating rock encapsulates within the wider themes of mediterranean-ness & culture.

a collector of rocks, seashells, books & records, her other interests include beach-exploring, hiking, travelling & cooking (but more so eating).


all images
© 2020-2024 susannah farrugia

Mark

5. commissions


2024
qolla / arzella / kresta


            3d printed lamps inspired by coastal geological formations
commission for sforma studio by clara azzopardi



5_082



5_081



5_080


5_079


5_078



5_077


5_076



5_075



5_074



5_073



5_072


5_071



5_070


5_069



5_068



5_067



5_066



5_065


5_064



2024
an eternal holiday


            handmade ceramics from portugal
commission for motel a miio



5_063



5_062



5_061



5_060



5_059



5_058


5_057



5_056


5_055


5_054



2024
trails in gold


            jewellery inspired by island-life 
commission for swedish jewellery brand bon isla



5_053
trails in gold i



5_052
trails in gold ii



5_051
honey-drizzled dreams


5_050



5_049



5_048



5_047
nodes on a reed like rings on a finger


5_046


5_045



2024
of places yet to be


            casa fortuna & its becoming
commission for daniel xuereb



5_044



5_043
portrait of a house & the person behind it


O Fortuna,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing,
ever waning,
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice 

- from the Carmina Burana, 13th century



5_042



5_041


5_040



5_039



5_038


5_037



5_036


5_035


5_034



5_033


5_032



5_031



5_030


5_029


5_028



5_027



2022
of places lost & imagined


            id-dar ta’ mary vella & the stories interwoven within it
commission for luke dimech


5_026


“When you turn and look back down the years, you glimpse the ghosts of other lives you might have led; all houses are haunted.” 
- Mantel, 2003

“ 

Every so often, if we’re lucky, we are struck with what Virginia Woolf called ‘moments of being’. I say ‘we are struck with’ as opposed to ‘we come across’ because that’s what it feels like, or rather, that’s what it has felt like to me. Not quite a slap in the face, nor some divine revelation. You are suddenly faced with a reality that seems almost new, though in the light of that newness everything seems realer and clearer than ever. Who you are. Where you are. Who you are with.

This house, this space that was occupied by my family for decades struck similarly every time I stepped into it. This house was, IS, central to my existence. I feel that everything I am has only been made real through this house. Every single person that has occupied it - the people born, the people that passed on, the people cared for, the meals cooked and eaten around the tables, the oranges picked peeled and savoured, the jokes told and laughs had. The chairs so worn in by the weighty bodies that claimed them they’re dented. Their seats now leather craters made by great buttocks… great-grandparent buttocks. This house, which I’ve always known as Aunty Mary’s house, is a moment of being in itself, this house makes us all real. This is where my grandmother grew up, this is where my father spent a fair deal of his childhood. This is from where we’ve inherited our sense of humours, our love of food, our appreciation for gathering around a table and being together as a family.

But any moment is fleeting, every moment has an end. And unfortunately this one is nearing its end, at least in the physical realm. This moment of my family’s life shall live on in our memories and in our blood. It is part of our inheritance for many more decades to come. Ths is a testament to what the house was and what it meant to us, but also to the lives that filled it and the purpose it served.

‘Id-dar ta’ Aunty Mary’ is still standing, though not for much longer. I will forever be grateful to have been one of the many to haunt its rooms, even if for a brief moment of being.

- words by luke dimech




5_025

mary’s spot when peeling & savouring oranges after picking them fresh from the garden




5_024


5_023



5_022


5_021



5_020


5_019



5_018



5_017


5_016



5_015



5_014


5_013



5_012



5_011


5_010
uncle victor’s spot & grandmother’s spot


5_009


5_008


5_007


5_006
“my dad tells stories of playing at this water pump as a child”


5_005


5_004
fresh from the garden


5_003
layers of a house


5_002
locking up



5_001