The first part of my tribute to this year’s Venice Carnival concentrated on images of masquerade and fancy dress. In this second part I focus on found street abstracts featuring coriandoli, Italian for confetti, a traditional decorative feature of the Venetian carnival. The pavements and squares are strewn with it.
Here’s a picture of my shadow in a coriandoli-dotted Venetian square, Campo Santo Stefano:
And close-up abstracts, looking down at paving stones:
It’s even in the gutters and drains:
The next sequence of images shows how the coriandoli have even attached themselves to the algae in the canals. These were taken in the area known as Dorsoduro. I’m reminded of images of fallen cherry blossom and the transient nature of the seasonal beauty. I like the way the tendrils dance and move in the water so are never quite the same, and the mix of nature with this seasonal phenomenon. If you look closely you can also make out fragments of words – some of the coriandoli have bits of text. For me these are found abstracts – where nature and the street momentarily collide. A transient moment, caught on camera:
