Joseph (or Giuseppe) Cremona was a photographer who hailed from Malta’s sister island of Gozo. He was born in Ir-Rabat Gozo on 12 February 1890. Joseph was one of the early Gozitan photographers. He was active in portraiture and general photography. Cremona was a fast learner and a remarkably ingenious handyman, capable of ‘manufacturing’ items from the most basic of materials. In fact, he was adept at even constructing his own camera and enlarger and his photographic plates. Joseph had initially become interested in photography when he met fellow Gozitan photographer Michele Farrugia (better known as ‘Il -Badiku’). The latter was understandably somewhat reluctant to teach his craft, but Joseph was a keen observer and quick to absorb the techniques of photography. Joseph’s work was mostly commercial consisting mainly of portraiture, but he also took some very beautiful views mostly of Ix-Xlendi. Unfortunately, only around 300 of his glass negatives survived.

Cremona worked from number 59 Strada Carità (Charity Street) Victoria. He was the uncle of Francis Cremona, who also took up photography. Joseph was active between 1920 and 1950. He built a darkroom on the roof of his residence, where he even constructed a rudimentary yet very effective enlarger from whatever material he could obtain. Furthermore, he also succeeded in constructing a press for his prints by cannibalizing and machining parts from salvaged bits of a crashed warplane! He even succeeded in building an exact replica of an 1890 Instantograph Patent camera which he used for his photography. Like all respected photographers of that time, Joseph was skilled at hand-colouring and retouching of prints. This was an essential requisite for early photographers when the days of colour photography were yet only a pipedream.

He was still working in photography when he eventually passed away in Gozo in 1950. In the Guida Generale di Malta e Gozo published between 1922 and 1940, the index of photographers lists him as: “Cremona Giuseppe, 59 Strada Carità, Victoria, Gozo.” The number 59 was the previous number of the same house, which was changed to number 64, but which continued to appear as 59 till 1940.