MARIA SIRINOPOULOU BALLO IN MASCHERA De Facto At the Cafe Florian, on the Piazza San Marco, in the narrow streets and along the waterfront of the Serenissima, costumed figures materialise before us and sweep us into the spontaneous theatrical performance that continues day and night throughout the entire Carnival period. Elaborate costumes, silks and velvets ornamented with gold and pearls, plumes and masks that cannot fail to enchant even the most indifferent of bystanders. All is magnificent and resplendent, as befits the "pearl of the Adriatic", which during the weeks of the Carnival recovers the wealth and the glory of by-gone ages; but at the same time everything is tinged with the melancholy of the ephemeral and of the decline that succeeds wealth and glory. The looks, the gestures, the movement, the rhythms, the ambiguous smiles beneath the masks, tell the tales improvised by each masquerader and his band of companions. Past and present, imagination and reality, dream and ordinary everyday life in a continuous interchange of roles draw the sensitive onlooker aloft. The photographer's lens encountered the anonymous performers in this celebration in the great square, in the cafes and in the streets, and drew from them their stories - mythical, cosmopolitan, solitary, sad. The photographer behind the lens sought something more than a simple record of traveller's impressions: what she wanted was to draw nearer to the deeper nature of individuals and situations. Avoiding the obvious, she listened to the silences, the murmured conversations, the thoughtful eye or the mere availability of each individual, in order to carry out her function within time and space. Maria Seirinopoulou was born in Thessaloniki. She studied law at that city's Aristotle University, followed by criminology in Paris and Lausanne, after which she returned to Thessaloniki where she is a practising lawyer. She has long been interested in creative photography, and has exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions. Her contribution to PHOTOSYNKYRIA 2001 is an exhibition of photographs from the Carnival in Venice (March 2000).