Notturno in nero 黑色夜曲 黒の夜想曲

Nocturne in Black: A Venetian Masquerade

Venice Carnevale — A Street Portrait Series

There are moments during the Venice Carnevale when the city seems to belong neither to the present nor entirely to the past. Behind a mask, identity disappears; beneath layers of lace and black fabric, time itself becomes uncertain.

Nocturne in Black is a portrait series created on the streets of Venice, exploring the darker and more intimate side of the Venetian masquerade. Rather than the brilliant colours, gilded costumes and theatrical grandeur often associated with Carnevale, these photographs retreat into an almost monochromatic world of black lace, ivory masks and shadow.

Two mysterious figures emerge from the darkness, dressed in elaborate black costumes whose textures are revealed only gradually by the light. Their smooth white masks become the brightest elements in each composition—expressionless faces onto which the viewer can project affection, suspicion, melancholy or desire. A single flash of crimson lipstick provides the only vivid colour, transforming a tiny detail into a powerful focal point.

The striped black-and-white staff introduces another distinctly theatrical element. Its graphic simplicity contrasts with the intricate lace, jewellery and flowing garments, while also lending the pair the appearance of characters from some forgotten Venetian fable.

What interested me most, however, was the relationship between the two figures.

Their gestures are remarkably tender. A hand rests upon a shoulder; another cradles a masked face. They lean toward one another as though sharing a secret that neither the photographer nor the viewer is permitted to hear. Yet because their true expressions remain hidden, the nature of that relationship is deliberately unresolved. Are they lovers? Accomplices? Ghosts? Or simply two strangers briefly transformed by Carnevale?

That ambiguity lies at the heart of the Venetian mask.

For centuries, the mask has offered both concealment and liberation—the possibility of stepping outside one’s ordinary identity and becoming someone else for a few hours. In these portraits, the darkness pushes that idea further. The surrounding streets seem almost to disappear, leaving only the two masked figures suspended within a pool of soft light.

Although photographed amid the living spectacle of Venice during Carnevale, the finished images feel strangely detached from a particular year or place. They could be contemporary costumers encountered on a Venetian street, characters from an old painting, or apparitions emerging from the city’s long memory.

Nocturne in Black is ultimately less about documenting a costume than capturing a fleeting Carnevale encounter: two anonymous figures, a moment of intimacy, and the enduring mystery of what may—or may not—exist behind the mask.