David’s Venice Blog - April 2008

Venice is one of the world’s  great photographic cities . . .  winding alleys that leap over narrow canals, gondolas plying still waters, bridges everywhere. Colors, classical and Baroque architecture, windows, walls, plazas and courtyards abound. The massive San Marco Square opens on to the Grand Cannel and  the lagoon. The Cathedral, the Place, the Museum, the ornate clock tower, and the massive  bell tower surround this paved stone square the size of two football field–generally packed with tourists during the day, empty at night and early mornings–except for the lovers and photographers. The Workshops’ April “Reflections of Venice” class there took full advantage of the this marvelous city and came away with a wonderful set of images and memories.

 

The Class in Venice 2008. © DHLyman

Our class of 8 which was comprised of a marketing executive and his wife, an architect, a corporate PR executive, a retired television producer, a mortgage banker, a historian and author, and human resources executive–all serious photographers and fairly accomplished. This was a ten day workshop called Reflections of Venice, but it went further than just making interesting images of reflections.  Everyone had digital cameras, laptops and some experience, many having taken workshops with Alison or at The Workshops before, some many times. 

 

My ARRIVAL

I arrived in the rain. Alison was waiting for me at the San Marco Square ferry dock . . . . well, at the adjacent dock. It took us hour before we both realized this and found each other. Alison had been to Venice on a family trip when she was a teen, this was my first visit to he floating city. The boat trip from the airport take an hour and is a welcome introduction to the islands of the lagoon, with Venice itself the last stop. I have wanted to go to Venice ever since I’d seen the work Ernest Haas brought back from Venice in the 1970s.  This was also an opportunity to experience this complex and beautiful city, to do some teaching and mentoring–which I have missed since turning The Workshops over to others to run.

 

ALISON SHAW

 Alison at work on the Plaza. © DHLyman

Alison is a photographer from Martha’s Vineyard Island that has been leading workshop me for years. We go back a few decades and got along famously. It was a time  for us to share notes one careers, technology, family, children (we both have 2) , relationships and opportunities and do some mentoring together. I’ve know Alison since the early 80s, when she was working as a part time photographer and full time layout editor for the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette that used her images to great effect. She’s come along way since then. She’s authored a number of books, opened her own studio and Gallery on The Island and has become a popular workshop leader.

Our apartment was easy to find . . . once you knew the land-marks: go down the Calle (alley) under the Clock Tower, take the second left at the sign : Photo Blitz. Turn down the first alley on the right, through a gated entrance, into a court yard and the apartment is through the black door straight ahead, on the second floor. The view out the window of our apartment onto a canal and a arched walking bridge was ever changing and everyone found images floating or walking by.

 

The apartment, rented through the ViewonVenice web site, was more than I expected, and far cheaper than the hotels. Alison and I each had a bedroom and bathroom, there was a small and fully equipped kitchen, with a washer drier, a fridge. There was an entry hall way and a large living room with a white wall for projecting images. Chairs just enough for the entire class to meet for lectures and with guest.

  

Alison and I divided up the class of 8 each spending half-hour reviewing each day with each student, swapped students the next day. Reviews began at 10 and lasted for 2 hours. We all shared lunch at the apartment with sandwiches and Cokes from a shop below us. At 1 PM we screened the selects and talking about what we saw in each photographers’ work. This lead us to shared information on locations, technical issues and intent. Alison and I were both looking for themes to emerge within the work of each student, as we also pointed out working methods that were standing in the way of making more meaningful and successful images.

We had presentations by two Venetian photographers, a walking tour of the city, morning, afternoon  and evening field work, outings to other islands in the lagoon, shared meals and each participant had a daily half hour private one-one-one critiques with either Alison and myself. The goals of the ten-day workshop was to help each photographer create a personal body of work that reflected their visual relationship with Venice and its people. Venice is a city that begs to be explored on foot and by water and with a camera. As each photographers worked their way through the obvious cliques they began to produce more personal and meaningful images. 

 

The ten days saw marked improvement in each photographers ability to see beyond the clique, of which Venice has an abundant supply. Out of the work each student created emerged a unique, personal view of Venice . . . some of it abstract, exercises in colors, experiments in design and the frame, as well as a few complete stories.  

 

 It was our job to help our photographers see the threads within their work–what made their impressions of Venice unique. This is always a magical part of the workshop experience (for the students, but also for us as mentors), when the photographer discovers that within a lager collection of images there is a voice that is uniquely theirs. Toward the end of the workshop, we worked individually with the photographers to create sequences of images that spoke of each student’s vision. Out of the themes and essays came a slide show that was screened the last evening before our group dinner. Alison and I encouraged each photographer to layout a self-published book, to create an exhibition, or create their own on-line gallery when they got home. Using their themes and image sequences, the class portfolio showcases some of their work.

 

http://homepage.mac.com/dhlyman/Venice%202008%20Student%20Portfolio/

 

Alison and I both got to shoot, but it is only now that I’ve had time to sit down and look at what came out of those ten days in Venice. One thing I did learn, is that I need to go back as I barely scratched the surface. Alison did produce a marvelous body of work which will only build as she too returns. Her Venice Portfolio includes both her color abstracts and the new painting with light and motion series. My photography in Venice is a work-in-process, but 

 

http://homepage.mac.com/dhlyman/Alison%20Shaw’s%20Venice%20Gallery%20-%202008/

 

Guests

Talk of guests. Marco Mazzelli, a Venetian photographer, who leads his own 3-day workshops in Venice, and also shoots a few weddings a week, knows his city. Marco spend Monday afternoon with the class, briefing us on how to work in Venice, what to shoot and not shoot, then led us on a three hour walking town through parts of Venice the tourists seldom see, where the Venetians live, shop and congregate. Mario is a charming Italian, eloquent and technically well versed in the digital realm, being a retired engineer. You can visit him on-line.

www.mazziol.it

 

 Later in the week,  Giorgia Fiorio, a humanitarian photojournalists, came by to share her work and career with the class in our apartment. Giorgia, an Italian, lives in Venice but spends half he year traveling the world on her personal photographic projects that result in books, and exhibitions. I spent a morning with Giorgia in her office/studio earlier in the week, recording an interview.  Giorgia won the Ernest Haas Awards back in 1996 that I bestowed on her, so I was familiar with her and her work, but had never had the opportunity to talk with her. I found her a dynamic woman, passionate and driven. Her spaces included a tastefully done office with her images and those of her mentors on the wall, a darkroom for she still shoots film, storage and a quiet garden outside. She works with one assistant and was busy with details on her next trip to Iran, future exhibitions and publications and corporate assignments.  Her B&W images of men at work, men in prison, men in the French Foreign Leagdon has been published widely. You can see more of her work at http://www.giorgiafiorio.org. Her dedication and passion for what she does was an inspiration to the class and sparked discussions throughout the week. Where our class was bent on creating a body of work in ten days, Giorgia spends ten years on a project.

There was a full moon while we were in Venice, which we all made use of. A few evenings following the full moon, the tide rose and flooded San Marco Square–the sea water that bubbled up out of the drains and spread slowing over the square creating a mirror, reflecting the square’s lights. Flooding is normal, and the Venetians are prepared with temporary,  elevated walkways through the square. And, flooding created a marvelous reflections for night photography.

  

Venice’s industry theses days is tourists, and even in April they flooded in, filling San Mao Square during the day, but leaving it vacant at night, except for the lovers and the photographers. Venice is a clean and orderly city. The streets are swept each night and the trash taken away by 8 AM, deliveries to the shops that line the calles, has been completed by 9 AM . . . all by boat. There are no cars in Venice, I repeat . . . no cars. But there are boats of every description: floating taxis, buses, ambulances,  police cruisers, even FedEx an UPS come by boat– all narrow of beam to navigate the canals.

(Garbage boat)

Accommodations & Costs

Our students resided in a number of locations throughout Venice, hotels, pensions and apartments . . . all within walking distance of our apartment-classroom, just off the Plaza San Marco. Hotel prices in Venice rang from $€80 per night to well over $300. The euro costs Americans $1.55, so a €€20 dinner costs Americans $35. But a reasonable 3 course meal, with wine, could be found for this price in the sections of Venice not frequented by tourists. Mario told us to look for restaurant where the menu was in Italian, only. That meant it was for locals. Lunch was a simple matter of grabbing a €3 roll-up sandwich in the shop below our apartment. Apartments abound in Venice, as it’s getting too expensive for a family to live there, so they rent their apartment and move ashore. We used ViewsOnVenice, an on-line booking agency. We were pleased with the apartment and the service and will use them again.

 

 

An Island of Colors

A field trip to nearby island of Burano was so popular that we did it twice. This fishing village is on an island, an hour’s boat ride from Venice. The village that occupies most of the island is comprised of colorful two story fisherman’s homes, lining narrow canals, with even narrower side walks. It is tradition that each home-owner-fisherman pant their house a distinctive color or combination of colors, so to see their house when retuning from fishing. The houses create a geometric collage of color block that would delight Mondrian as it has inspired photographers. The natural eye the fishermen and their wives witnessed in their color homes is so visually inspiring an art school flourish here for a century.  Alison said she could spend a week on this one  colorful island . . . so, will return next March. 

David’s Burano Portfolio

 

The Venice Workshop in 2009

 We will be back in Venice next year–May 1 to 10, 2009–before the tourists really take over the city and while the temperatures are still mild, conducive to a lot of walking. Information is at Venice 2009

Buarno Island is a  in colors . . . © DHLyman