Photographer Lino Arrigo, who snapped Malta’s history, dies

Renowned press photographer Lino Arrigo Azzopardi has died at the age of 77. Arrigo Azzopardi worked as a photographer at the Department of Information between 1958 and 1983 during which he filmed some of Malta’s most memorable moments in recent history, such as George Borg Olivier’s declaration of independence, the appointment of Sir Anthony Mamo as the first Maltese president, and Dom Mintoff’s famous lighting of the torch at the Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa.

He later served as the official photographer under presidents Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, Guido de Marco and Eddie Fenech Adami. He was seriously injured in 2001 when a truck crashed into Guido de Marco’s official car at high speed while the then president was on a state visit to Sofia.

He later served as the Malta-based stringer for the Associated Press and the European Pressphoto Agency, and his most recent assignment was the CHOGM summit that took place in Malta last year.

Many of his colleagues remember him as a jovial but dedicated and professional photographer.

“I recall the time when Eddie Fenech Adami visited Tony Blair before Malta’s accession to the EU,” MediaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan said. “Arrigo was standing in front of Downing Street calling on the two protagonists to look at him and smile as he snapped away. He was professional, helpful and always a jovial character.”

His funeral will be held on Thursday at 8:30am at the Santa Lucija Parish Church.