The Carnival in Venice was reportedly born when people started to dance and make reunions in San Marco Square to celebrate the victory of the ‘Serenissima Repubblica” against the Patriarch of Aquileia in the year 1162.
The festival was outlawed in 1797 with the use of masks becoming strictly forbidden. Carnival’s returned in 1979 after a long hiatus when the Italian government decided to focus on history and culture, with the festival becoming the centrepiece of its efforts. It is said that today, approximately 3,000,000 people visit Venice every year to bear witness to the magic of the masks and music.
The Malta Independent spoke to two photographers, Albert Camilleri and Nicole Schembri about their plans to go to the Carnival in Venice in hopes to capture the magic with their cameras. They spoke to us about what photography meant to them in their daily lives, what kind of equipment they’re going to use in Venice and about how photography has actually changed their perspective of how they view the world every day and how they plan when they travel abroad.
Albert got into photography about two years ago. “I felt frustrated at not being able to take good photos with my phone while other people took bad photos with good equipment.” So he bought an average model camera and within a day had to learn the basics because the next day he took photos at a conference. “Obviously the photos weren’t the best, but they were ok.”
Eventually this progressed into getting more lenses and knowing more about photography “and then you keep buying new lenses, new equipment and then I sold my old camera and bought a new one.” In fact, the day of the interview, Albert’s new lens had just arrived. “Photography managed to make me see things with a different perspective. For example when you travel knowing you’re going to take your camera, it changes where to go and the way you plan things.”
Nicole Schembri started a year ago. She got into it after Albert got into photography “and spoke about it all the time which drove me insane because I had nothing to relate to.” She bought her first camera on a whim to be able to take better picture of her food because, at the time, she was getting more and more passionate about cooking, baking in particular. “I’m still learning a lot and I don’t have time to actually watch videos and learn how to do it so Albert just explains everything to me when we go on our photography walks.”
While the two have never travelled together with the primary point being to take photos as such, “when we went to Budapest, we had in mind to take good photos.” They both agreed that when two photographers are abroad together, they can spend hours at the same place trying to get the right photo. Albert mentioned that “when you’re travelling with non photographers you always make them wait and you feel bad.” While Nicole added about Budapest, “You always find little things, like last time it had rained but the raindrops just looked really nice.”
When asked about Venice in particular, they both said that Venice itself was a beautiful city at any time of year full of opportunities for photographers, but Carnival was a very welcome bonus. Even though, that being said, Nicole insisted that “we didn’t want to go to Gozo, I love Gozo but we wanted a break. And where else other than Brazil would you want to go for Carnival?”
The last question was about whether or not the two photographers felt unsafe consider the current terror threat in Venice and the added security levels. Albert replied, “I’m more afraid of a cockroach than a terrorist attack, but obviously I have travel insurance on all my equipment and what not and we’re staying at a good hotel.” Nicole’s response was, “I’m a very very laid back person, these things don’t bother me. It won’t happen, it’s fine and I travel a lot so I’ll be fine.”
Their pictures from Carnival will be featured on The Malta Independent. Photos with this article are from the Associated Press.