Venice Carnival by Chris Bickford
Submitted by Pete Marovich on Friday, 14 November 20083 Comments
2007 Emerging Photographer Fund finalist Chris Bickford is working on a long-term project on the feast of Carnival and the multitude of expressions it has taken on worldwide.
For the last two winters he travelled to Italy to document the Carnival of Venice, one of the oldest and most vibrant Carnival celebrations in the world. This coming winter he will be traveling to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and the Louisiana Carnival season, and in subsequent years he will be following the Carnival trail to Brazil, Trinidad, and points beyond.
In both his writing and photography on the subject, Bickford explores the historical and psychological roots of Carnival, the “daytime” and “nighttime” faces of Venice, the public and private subversions of identity that made the masquerade such and integral part of Venetian life for centuries, and the current re-envisioning and commercialization of the tradition. His current Venice work will be appearing in the December issue of the Chinese magazine Vision.
Click on the photo above to watch Chris Bickford’s Venice Carnival.
For more of Chris’ work go to his website www.chrisbickford.com.
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November 17th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Nice work Chris. Looking forward to seeing your continued reportage from various other carnivals. Would be curious to see your treatment of, say, Burning Man. Keep it up!
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 am
Good work Chris, I must admit that I was expecting more of the same from a subject that has been photographed many times but I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth and the quality of your coverage. Good use of colour (very good). A far cry from the stereotype pose in St. Mark’s Square. I wanted to be there, at night – in a mask!
April 20th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
great work Chris.keep it up