Lit by the soft morning light and veiled in mist, the endless bobbing gondolas tethered to their moorings are an anachronism that has survived the passage of time. These iconic crafts steeped in symbolism and nostalgia are a common sight plying their trade in the Grand Canal, loaded with animated cargos of tourists. Yet, for all its splendour, Venice has been tainted with the Disneyesque and the gondola relegated to a motif.

In the half-light, I called upon the phantasmagoria of these hauntingly funeral blackened silhouettes and, through the use of long exposures and intentional camera movement, allowed mythology to substitute reality and pose the question. Who will pay the ferryman?