Italian photographer Carlo Naia from Piedmont is best known for his photographs of Venice, which introduce us to this beautiful city. Naya came from a wealthy family, received a law degree at the university, and in the middle of the 19th century set off on a journey around the world. Then photography was for him a simple hobby, which he was fond of at an amateur level.
Over time, the hobby turned into a passion: in 1846, Naya opened his own studio in Istanbul. He turned to daguerreotype and made portraits to order. Upon returning to his native Italy, Naya continued to take photographs, living in Venice and working with the optician Carlo Ponti, who helped sell his work. The partners explored all of Venice in search of beautiful places and realized that they had stumbled upon a gold mine. At that time, the tourism sector was rapidly developing, and travelers wanted to keep something in memory of the city. Naya provided himself with a good income by selling images of monuments, palaces, canals.
One day, the cooperation of photographers came to an end: Naya and Ponti quarreled and their paths diverged. In 1868, Naya opened a store near St. Mark's Basilica, on the main square of Venice. In the second half of the 19th century, his studio was the largest and most successful in the city. In addition to the Venetian cityscapes, the Italian photographer photographed the restoration of the frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel, created by Giotto di Bondone at the beginning of the 14th century.
