Pierrot and the Moon

For the past 12 years, I have been visiting and photographing the Venice Carnevale every year. This year, I was fortunate to meet two new local Italian costumers and they dressed up as Pierrot. This is their version: "Hi Robin, our costume developed in just a few hours and was a succession of ideas that intertwined, giving life to our version of Pierrot. It's a Pierrot who wears his trademark teardrop on his face, but at the same time, he also wears the wonderful moon he's always loved. That unreachable, marvelous moon, white and luminous. Pierrot, in awe of her beauty, addressed his most beautiful love poems to her every night. And the moon gives him her light in the darkest nights. Pierrot becomes the bearer of a great and pure love, and the Moon draws a slice of herself on his face, so that he can always carry her with him, pure, magical, and white. This is our Pierrot. A Pierrot made of paper, a Pierrot who wanted to be light yet touching, melancholic yet capable of being joyful, a Pierrot who tells the story of each of us. A mask made with little, but with extreme passion. My encounter with newspaper literally inspired me to create the accessories for our costume and it was a crescendo of enthusiasm. Meeting you allowed us to see our Pierrot reunited with the Moon exactly as we imagined him… with the artistic sensitivity you expressed in your photos, we found him even more intense and magical. Thanks, Robin" - Janette de Marche and Gi Bo. Originating from the Italian Commedia dell'arte, Pierrot emerged as a symbol of unrequited love, longing, and the perpetual search for meaning. I draw my inspiration of the photo series from a page about Pierrot from Pablo Picasso's La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy) - a suite of 180 drawings created by Pablo Picasso between November 28, 1953, and February 3, 1954. The portrait is just a street portrait done against a grey wall on the busy streets of Venice and using only natural lighting.