The filmshow entitled ‘My Dear Friend and Map Engraver’ which the Malta Map Society organised on Wednesday 26 November 2014 at St James Cavalier in Valletta was a very successful event generated a lot of interest and was extremely well attended also by students from different faculties from the University of Malta.
The filmshow was about Rainer Kalnbach (1928- ) who was the last copper engraver to work at the German Hydrographic Institute in Hamburg when they still used copper engraving for the production of nautical charts until the reproductive methods were replaced by more modern printing techniques. Although Kalnbach retired in 1993 after 50 years from service, he still continued to work privately. In 2007 his son Christian decided to make a documentary of his father’s work. The film magnificently shows the concentration, the perseverance, the skill, and the fatigue necessary to produce a good engraving. Nobody will look at a map in the same way anymore after the show.
Before the film started, Joseph Schirò, the MMS Secretary, gave a very brief powerpoint presentation to explain that there are other different printing techniques used in the production of maps besides copper engravings, and showed a few examples of woodcut maps and lithographic maps of Malta and how these are produced.
When the film ended, the public was invited to see some tools and actual copper plates and prints produced by the young Maltese artist Jesmond Vassallo. Jesmond Vassallo is a visual artist who works in painting, graphic arts and sculpture. Following his completion of a History of Art degree from the University of Malta he pursued his studies at the Accademia de Belle Arti in Carrara, Italy and underwent an apprenticeship period with Venice-based professional etching printer Diego Candido Cattarin. The discussion between the artist and the audience was very lively and the people who attended had a lot of praise for the whole initiative.