In his many lives he was a firefighter, nurse, carpenter, CEO of a company in Murano that worked with glass and which was forced to close its doors due to Covid. Now that he is 70 years old, Giovanni Zardinoni has no intention of becoming a pensioner and starts from his home in Ro Ferrarese with his camera to tell and bring to life villas, such as some historic homes in Polesella, museums and ancient courts.
The bucintoro, a model found in Venice. It was the galley of the Doges, on which they embarked every year on Ascension Day to celebrate the rite of the marriage of the Sea. The reproduction (Historical Naval Museum of the Arsenal of Venice) was carried out in 1824, under the supervision of the naval engineer Giovanni Casoni, so that the famous ship, destroyed in 1798 by the French, would remain a memory. “A request came a few days ago that made me jump for joy – he says – my blow-ups of the model will be used for the opening of the new management of the naval museum of Venice, a great satisfaction”. It’s called virtual reality, he creates it with a digital camera that is mounted on a tripod with a special protractor. The effect is that of a journey through gardens and rooms, the spaces come to life, they flow in a film, paths open up, in the hedges that parade in a continuous change of perspectives. And, to complete the picture, he lets go of the drone which he shoots from above, adding magic. An example, Villa Morosini. He began creating virtual reality over 25 years ago when few people knew about this special technique using the protractor. He scrolls through the bucintoro of the third millennium, the gilding, the oars, the flag with the lion of San Marco, the wine museum, the countryside. “I’m 70 years old – he reveals –, I feel like I’m starting to live now, I don’t feel like it at all”. And he walks away with the tripod, the smile of someone who knows how to tell the world with a photo.
