The first time someone handed Travis Carbonella a camera, he was a high school freshman, and didn't know exactly what to do with it.
At first, he and a group of friends would make skits over the weekends. Then, he started bringing it to family events, documenting the Carbonella family history as it unfolded. From there, he started thinking about how it allowed him to show up and exist in public and private spaces, especially "on my own terms."
"I try to bring out stories of humanity to the public, and show people how connected we are," he said in a recent video interview at Westville's Lotta Studio. "But also do it in a way that recognizes the larger divisions that exist [in Connecticut]."
From family events, Carbonella became interested early on in how to turn his lens toward social justice. As a freshman at Eastern Connecticut State University, he realized quickly that the school's focus on hard news and commercial videography, including the Connecticut-based sports powerhouse ESPN, was not his calling. Instead, he took equipment home, teaching himself skills like video editing through quirky music videos.
From his time at Eastern, he has become a fixture in New Haven, and particularly the city's tight-knit, artsy Westville community. In the past 15 years alone, for instance, he has documented (and in so doing, championed) immigrant rights, the city's music scene, and used his lens to help make the case for carceral reform and more comprehensive services around reentry—and dipped his toe into a political campaign or two. He is currently working on a long-form documentary on school finance reform.
Rarely, if ever, is he absent from a giant puppet parade, neighborhood tree lighting, film screening, or celebration of Artwalk in Westville . It seems, in fact, that he's rarely still. Maybe for that reason, he's also quick to talk about the toll of living and working as a practicing artist, particularly as freelance gigs wane in the current economy.
"Like, what am I working towards?" he asked aloud in a recent video interview. "I want some type of respite in the future, and I feel like this type of freelance is really difficult without retainership ... so like, do I become an adjunct and hopefully become, like, a teacher? It's tough."
Mistina Hanscom, who co-founded Lotta Studio with her husband and business partner, Luke Hanscom, in 2014, praised Carbonella as a dynamo from the moment they met, eager to collaborate with her as she built out her idea of studio space in the neighborhood. Lotta Studio now occupies multiple buildings at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Blake Streets, including the studio space West River Arts.
"We were all kind of working through what the [Westville] Village needed in a time when none of us really had studio space here in Westville at all," she recalled in a recent interview at Lotta Studio. "Travis was a part of those conversations immediately."
Carbonella stepped up to help from the jump, she remembered. He took several videos for the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), through the two met and became close. He worked with her on several creative projects. The two talked often, as they still do, about "living the good life as a creative entrepreneur."
Hanscom remembered working closely with Carbonella on "See Me As," a short film that they produced with Long Wharf Theatre in 2022. In the years to come, she envisions working on many more creative projects together.
This article comes from the ninth cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). Daniel "Cupido" Garcia is a graduate of Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School beginning his freshman year at SUNY Purchase.
