User talk:Dancilia/sandbox

Daniel Cilia LRPS


Daniel Cilia was born in Victoria, Gozo, in 1963, and has been engaged with photography since he was thirteen. His first major exhibition was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta, Malta in 1986. Later that year he was awarded the Licentiate of Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. Soon after he left his nursing profession and in 1988 he moved to Florence, Italy, to pursue his career in photography.

Cilia has since lectured at the Oslo Kunsthøgskolen (Oslo National Academy of the Arts), Norway (1989), and was in charge of the Photographic Department of the Art Institute of Florence, Lorenzo de Medici, from 1990 to 1995.

In 2008 the photographic book Gorgeous Gozo awarded Cilia the prize for the best-presented book (photography and design) by the National Book Council (Malta). In the same year, he was presented with the Award of Recognition for his contribution to the Photographic Art in Malta by the Malta Institute of Professional Photography.

A year later he was bestowed the knightly title Croce pro-Merito Melitensi, by Frà Matthew Festing, Grand Master and Prince of the Sovereign Military Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta, in recognition to Cilia’s publications about the Order.

In 2010 he was conferred the Gieħ Għawdex Award for having contributed to the national cause of the island of Gozo with his books and publications.

In the same year, his book Panoramic Malta & Gozo (which he also authored and which was translated into Italian, French and German) was awarded first prize in its category (Best Book in a Foreign Language) by the National Book Council (Malta).

The same council in 2013 awarded Cilia for the photography and design (Best Presentation Award) done for the book Victoria, A Portrait of a City.

In 2017 Cilia represented Malta during the country’s European Council Presidency with an exhibition called ‘Gozo – Faces of Culture’ held at the Committee of the Regions Building in Brussels. In the same year, Cilia represented Malta at the 15th  edition of Sharjah Heritage Days held at the Cultural Heritage Events Centre in UAE with another exhibition about Malta’s History and Culture. At the end of 2017 he represented Malta once again with an exhibition organized by the Embassy of Malta for Italy titled Malta: Patrimonio e Diversità Culturale at the Palazzo Delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy as part of the preparations for the upcoming of Valletta as European Capital of Culture for 2018.

Cilia has personally exhibited in many countries and his photographic work has been published in a good number of books and magazines, both in Malta and internationally.

In the last thirty years, Cilia has specialized in editorial photographic design combining his photography with book design.

The book Behind Closed Doors, commissioned by Heritage Malta, is Cilia’s 123rd book about the Maltese islands and their history. All these books have more than 75% of their photos done by Cilia. Many other books have Cilia’s work featuring as covers and/or as content.