On 25 April 1431 the Venetian patrician Pietro Querini sailed, with a load of merchandise, from Candia to Flanders aboard the Querina"carrack". After Cape Finisterre, he and his crew were surprised by terrible storms and pushed by the Gulf Stream they arrived shipwrecked on the deserted rock of Sandøy, in the Norwegian archipelago of Lofoten, beyond the Arctic Circle, where they were rescued by fishermen from the nearby island of Røst. A story that teaches us how a life can begin from a misfortune, and how it built a strong connection between Italy and Norway, albeit separated by many kilometers of distance.
Valentina Tamborra, a photojournalist from Milan with a strong sensitivity, has retraced this long journey through periods and worlds that are only apparently distant, where the art of meeting together become elements of union.
Querini and the other castaways remained on the island for about four months. Querini wrote a report on the stay for the Senate of Venice still preserved today in the Vatican Apostolic Library, in which he describes the people he has just met and their habits and customs. The approximately 120 inhabitants of the island were largely devoted to cod fishing and its drying. When Querini returned to Venice he introduced his people to stockfish, which was subsequently a great success for its goodness and for its ease of storage and transport, definitively marking the culinary destiny of this succulent dish in the Italian tradition.
Tamborra gives as title to its photographic and narrative book "Skrei - the journey" (Silvana Editoriale), the skrei is a particular type of Norwegian cod, which every year migrates from the Barents Sea towards the warmer waters of the northern Norwegian coast to deposit its eggs and reproduce.
The photographic work contained in the book is a precious document that captures the soul of people and tells us about them: starting from Italy and Querini we arrive in Norway, a land dominated by the rhythms of nature where the fish is almost the only source of sustenance.
Valentina Tamborra is a teacher of photography at the Italian Institute of Photography, in Milan. She mainly deals with reportage and portraits and in her work she loves to mix storytelling with image. She has collaborated and collaborates with some of the main NGOs and National and International Bodies such as AMREF, Doctors Without Borders, Tree of Life, Emergenza Sorrisi and the Italian Red Cross. Numerous publications in the main national media (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, Repubblica, Il Manifesto, La Lettura, Famiglia Cristiana, Gioia).
Valentina tell us about the inner journey from which your book “Skrei - the journey” starts. The title already seems very significant to me ...
Skrida in the ancient Viking language means to travel, to migrate, to move forward, the term skrei derives from this expression. Travel is the red thread that connects the story of a fish to that of brave men. A story of migration, research, discovery, which, starting from Venice and passing through Rome, reached the Lofoten Islands beyond the Arctic Circle, in Norway. But to move me, to push me towards this adventure that lasted 1 year and 8 months, was also a phrase contained in the diary of Pietro Querini "Nothing is more necessary to those who travel the world than to be open-minded and behave accordingly". As a photographer I find myself dealing with people from all over the world. What Querini writes is absolutely contemporary and should be a lesson for everyone.
Your starting point is Pietro Querini who writes the first “travel report” dedicated to Northern Norway. From Italy to Norway: in Røst there is the literary park dedicated to him. Have you retraced all the stages of the noble Venetian merchant?
I started from the Vatican Apostolic Library where Querini's diary is kept to get to the Marciana Library in Venice where I found the transcription of the memoirs of Cristofalo Fioravante and Nicolo de Micheile to then arrive beyond the Arctic circle, to the Lofoten Islands, in particular to Røst. I was interested in understanding what, in 600 years, has really changed and how memory is preserved. In fact, in Røst there is even a literary park as well as an opera, created by Hildegunn Pettersen, which traces the adventure of Querini. It is impressive how an ancient story that has its roots in a misfortune, the shipwreck, has become a reason for meeting and exchange.
Your photographs make up a splendid visual story. Do they have a main protagonist or do they have a choral cut? What focus did you want to give to your reportage?
The focus in my works is always the person, the human being. Through the voices and eyes of others I tell the world around me. I always try to become part of the world that I decide to tell in some way. Without the meeting, nothing is possible. In this sense, my work is certainly unanimous but every person, every single individual, has the same value.
Your book also has a narrative part. What does this part contain? What curiosity can you tell us about Querini?
What can I say ... you have to read it! Seriously: I always have written alongside photography. The volume does not speak only of Querini, rather it starts from the history of Querini and then gives an insight into the modern life of the fishermen of the north sea and also of the Rialto Fish Market. A curiosity? The fish market stands on the ruins of the Querini house. This teaches us how circular history is and how much even what appears very far away can be much closer than we believe.
What is left inside you of this long journey? And what can you tell us about the Norwegian people and its places? You also mentioned the myth of the Hyperboreans ...
I can tell you that the Arctic has remained with me for some time, from my first job in Svalabrd. The Arctic is absolute light, it is purity. The Hyperboreans according to Herodotus were deities who lived in a place where peace and serenity reigned and where war did not exist. So the idea of the extreme north is anything but sadness or loneliness, but rather serenity, peace. I learned that man, where Nature dominates, finds a way to survive that is mainly based on union. There is an African proverb that says "if you want to walk fast, walk alone, if you want to go far, walk in two" and I really agree with this idea. I also learned the hospitality of the north, the closeness, the willingness to make you feel at home. In Lofoten I have never felt "cold" despite the harsh climate: the heat lies in the people
Before the forced closure due to the Covid-19 emergency at the Stelline Foundation in Milan, the exhibition of the shots taken from Skrei was open. What kind of influx was there? When is the reopening scheduled?
The exhibition will reopen after the lockdown. We inaugurated on November 2 for the press and followed by a strong influx. It was wonderful to see the curiosity that Querini's events arouse, the desire to know more, the charm of the Nordic lands. I am waiting for you all after December 3rd to resume the journey together. Furthermore, the idea of bringing the exhibition also to Rome and Venice and then to Norway is planned.
Annalisa Nicastro
Photo by © Valentina Tamborra
C/O Società Dante Alighieri 
