Venice, Italy, 2012
Good morning from Venice. We’re now two days into this year’s Venice Within The Frame and it is so good to be back here. Venice is a mixed bag. People either love it or hate it. I both love it and hate it. I love the light, the architecture, the possibilities. I love the food, the wine, and the restaurants we’ve come to call our own. But by day Venice, packed with tourists (of which I am one, I know,) holds little photographic pull for me. I wander streets and make notes, stop in at cafes and bars for espresso, prosecco, or a glass of Valpolicella depending on the time of day, waiting for evening to come and usher the tourist hordes and kiosks selling masks and keychains off the cobbled streets. Venice in the evenings is magic, full of gorgeous light and dramatic skies, and lovers coming from their daytime hiding places. In the back streets the kids play soccer, until one by one mom calls them in for dinners. We eat late, the wine and laughter and shared stories taking us almost to midnight before heading back to the hotel.
Today we’ll wander, go take in the Elliot Erwitt exhibit, and wait for evening to fall, punctuating the day with pasta and seafood and a little window shopping. Somewhere in there we’ll gather for a couple hours to talk about the visual language and the ways we have to fit the magic of this place into our photographs. And then we go out for more, to get lost in the alleys and the light.
Comments
Hello David, I’m from Poland, I live in Lodz city (is central in Poland) I have Your book “Vision Mongers”. This book helped me a lot and it helps now. With this I develop a case of never before thought. Thanks David and see You in Poland 🙂 I invite You
Ah, Venice! A place that I’ve wanted to visit for many years. It’s on the list. 🙂
Dislike. Strongly Dislike. (But only because I didn’t extend the Liguria trip to include Venice!) Hope you, Jeffrey, Catherine and the rest of your crew are having a fabulous time (although hopefully not as much fun as Liguria!) I tease… 🙂 Suffering from severe Italy withdrawals over here stateside!
David,
Don’t tempt me! I’d love to join you all, but for prior commitments.
Great to see you “back in the saddle” and having a great time!
I apologize for hastily hitting “submit” before I proofed my comment. Couple of words missing and all that.
I remember arriving in Venice on a backpacking trip with a friend (pre-smart phone ) and promptly getting lost. We spent the day wandering the quiet August streets of Venice, taking reveling in the relative peace after the bustling throngs of Rome…Something doesn’t sound right eh? Well towards the end of the day we saw some post cards and realized we hadn’t seen ANY of these places pictured on them. We finally consulted a map and we realized we had spent the day wandering on the inside of the Grand Canal and the primarily residential area. We crossed over a bridge and were swept up in a tide brash, pigeon feeding tourists making there way through the vendors to pay $10 a bag to feed birds in St. Mark’s Plaza. As you say, we were tourists too, and just added to it all, but I was glad we had been “lost” for the rest of the day, because if this had been my first impression, I might have just turned around.
Hi David,
I know what you mean about number of tourists. We have just returned from a fantastic Italian holiday. We had a ball in Lake Garda and then Cefalu. However our last three days in Rome we just way too busy. No great photo opportunites unless you were out in the wee hours.
If you get a chance to visit Cefalu in Sicily I’m sure you would enjoy the experience. Very relaxing and I think a great spot for photography. still processing mine 🙂 back in New Zealand.
Cheers
Mark
Tom, hop the first plane to Venice and you’ll be making your own photographs of Venice, sans foreground boat, to your heart’s content. 🙂
I know, I know, no one asked for my opinion, but if it were my image I’d take out the foreground (purple) boat, just disturbs me somehow….even though I do like the image.
Please forgive my forwardness, I really appreciate your images…..
I’m in the “love it” column. There’s a lot of magic there if you look for it.
this is so reminds me of the very first time i visited Venice as a 16 year old with my parents and siblings on a very hot day (no camera) with so many other tourists but venice with all its noise and heat grabbed my heart and i fell head over heels for it. have visited it since a number of times and my love affair with it has not changed although it has spread to florence as well. want to visit venice again in autumn or winter and take some dark and dramatic images – one day. enjoy david – love the above image.
ahhhh… what’s the name of that movie…. this reminds me of it immediately… Donald Sutherland and Austin Mini’s bouncing around steps… and of course boat chases… could even be James Bond for that matter…
So envious! I don’t get to see the exhibion but alt least I already have a signed poster of his from earlier… haha! Enjoy!
Hey David,
Good to see a couple of posts from our group last week. Sarah, you made it home with all your gear? Stefan, really enjoyed your awesome humor and profound hiking skills!
Thank you David for a great week in Liguria. Hope your Venice crew is a fun as last week’s assemblage!
Hi David,
Love to read about your WTF in Venice. Couldn’t resist while working 🙂 to look & taste a bit of your experiences and closes my eyes to remember ours from last week, what a perfect one it was !
Let the Valpolicella taste as good as last week and enjoy 🙂
Stefan
Beautiful photograph – it and your story makes me yearn for Venice… I am one of those who love it:) I see you are getting some nice dramatic clouds too. The crowds can be daunting but surprisingly easy to avoid if you stay away from the main attractions. St Marks Square at dawn is wonderfully quite too – just a few other photographers and locals on their way to work. Enjoy the rest of the stay in the most enchanting city on earth!
How recognizable, the story that you both love and hate Venice.
A magical place! Enjoy!!
gorgeous evocative image, david. looks like you’re having the same drenching as we are in umbria, but those clouds are full of opportunity as well as moisture! enjoy, and see you soon, tanti abbracci, sarah
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