In light of my quickly approaching engagement party I decided to get in the spirit of my venetian masked themed event and do a self-portrait with my beautiful mask from Venice. Earlier in the year, with my fiancé on our travels, we fell in love with the mystery & magic of Venice. We spent our time getting lost down the many different narrow streets and networks of canals. Getting lost is where all the fun lies. We found ourselves out of ‘tourist town’ and into the true local areas where part of the beauty is in the buildings, so old, most are sinking below the water, tiny bars full of old men & smoke, local churches and tiny little grocery stores. With no room for gardens, with the small apartments built on water, the Italians of Venice must make use of the streets outside, Watching kids and families playing soccer in the streets, there is a larger sense of community and maybe something of what use to be around in Australia in the 80’s where everybody knew their neighbors.
Back in the overrun very expensive tourist area of St Marks Square, stores and stores of beautiful venetian glass, lace, paper, jewellery and masks line the streets & waterways. The glittering window of one store in particular caught my eye and we headed in not realising we wouldn’t leave for another hour. Hundreds and hundreds of beautifully hand crafted masks which we had to go through to choose the most suited one’s for us. The funny thing about Italians if you really try they open up to you so much. The shop owner who never likes people taking photos or trying to much on had us dressed head to toe in costume and masks and after letting us know how lovely and polite he always finds the Australians gave me permission to snap away.
So falling in love with Venice and with our authentic masks in hand what better way to make use of them then with our very own venetian masquerade ball… and a new self portrait. The last ones I did as you can see below I had to make best use I could with the back lighting only using a point and shoot. If you haven’t been to Venice I hope you like this little insight into it and I hope you get the chance to go.
