Worm Carnevale: a profile

April 11, 7:07 PMNY Photography ExaminerLorenzo Dominguez

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Worm Carnevale

Last night, I went to visit Worm Carnevale, a 26 year old photographer who now lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, after recently migrating here from Delray Beach, Florida six weeks ago. 

For a few hours, we talked about why and how he got to be here in The Big Apple.

Overall, his enthusiasm reminded me of my own journey here to New York City 15 years ago, when I was 26 myself.

I too had that certain twinkle in my eye, and often felt high, if only because I was living in New York City. 

I too was fired up to make a fresh start.

And, I too had been motivated to make the move because I had come to the conclusion that there is more to life than simply making money and then spending it.

Born and raised in Delray Beach, Florida in 1983, Jae Basch took on the persona of “Worm Carnevale” after being inspired to pursue his newfound passion for photography when he was at a local party and started flipping through Heaven to Hell, a book of photographs by David LaChapelle, a fashion, advertising, and fine art photographer and filmmaker who is well known for his gritty, surreal, and often humorous work.

“Yeah man, I was looking through this book and I was completely blown away by how much LaChapelle’s style mimicked those dreams I had been having since I was a child. That’s when it occurred to me that this was my next step in life, this is what I had to do.”

Worm explained that he had been working in commercial real estate for five years and had grown tired of the empty feeling he was left with at the end of the day. “For a while the money was great and I was living large, but there was still something missing, because I wasn’t being fulfilled. Then a year and half ago the market took a turn, real estate started to tank and I was prompted to ask myself ‘What next?’ That’s when God spoke to me as I was peeling through Heaven to Hell. That’s when I knew I was destined to become a photographer.” 

Shortly after his epiphany he made the decision to just jump right into it. “Two weeks later I began to buy photo equipment. I had no clue what to do, so I just started doing it—learning by trial and error, internet research, and picking everybody’s brain.” 

300 photo shoots and a year and a half later he found himself here in Brooklyn, a bohemian artist making the most of his youth, exuberance and homegrown values like hard work and dedication. 

“I’m proud of my Italian heritage. I grew up in a loving household of all women, my mother and my sisters. Our mother and my grandfather, Bob Carnevale, both instilled deeply religious and sound morals, and a love for our family that involved pasta and big meals every Sunday. They also instilled the belief that one should be open-minded. Maybe that’s why I haven’t exactly followed the beaten path.” 

To get to New York, Worm had to first drop out of high school and eventually go back to school at a community college to get his high school diploma. He initially left high school because he found that he liked working, writing graphic design code for a dot.com company, far more than he liked studying.

He was so successful at programming that he was lured over to a client real estate company to write code and be their tech support guru. After a year or so of fortifying their technology it was suggested that he could make more money applying his talent to the business side of the company. 

“I did end up making more money, but once again, at the end of the day I just wasn’t fulfilled. So, now here I am, living day by day, penny by penny, just making enough to barely pay the bills, but at the same time I’m far more fulfilled than I have ever been before.”