Morte a Venezia

Dying in Venice.
Spending a whole night out in Venice feels like dying and be reborn, better the next day. I photographed what I did not want to photograph, and have not photographed what I wanted to photograph, I photographed to make my way through and get noticed by mice that live in total freedom at night as if they were hamsters or pets. I photographed myself to keep me awake and not to faint in the toilet of the station of Saint Lucia and the benches that lead to the arsenal. I photographed the darkness of the alleys and the streets with my flash (always flash, how could I do without him?). Venice is like a luxury maze where you want to lose yourself, yet also very difficult to document because there are beautiful postcards out there, which you can buy without bothering to remake the picture, resulting uglier in some cases. I think one should buy the postcards and sign them as they were his own! In the end I fought all night against the ideas that came up to take the work home, but I have finally won and I photographed my moods, the fear of the dark, the mice and myself. Self-portraits really helped me and sometimes the camera was about to fall off my hands. One thing that made me feel good was to put my slippers on, it made me feel better and I liked walking in total silence to hear the noise the slippers made.
Jacopo Benassi