And finally, for now: a wider view of Venice.  The finale of my slightly more than a month-long series of series documenting my tiresome obsession with Venice draws to a conclusion with a set of wide angle shots. This I feel is my most incomplete series, and possibly my most rushed, as it draws only from one visit, last December. It’s not the most obvious location on the planet for this approach, especially if avoiding clichés is desired. So I’ve decided to let the clichés have their day.

All photos created using the Hasselblad XPan II with a mix of Kodak Ektachrome E100G and Fuji Provia 400X slide film.  Processed using a steam-driven Babbage Engine.

On slightly firmer ground, passages, alleyways and underpasses snake their way through Venice linking courtyards and dead ends, creating a maze that only the true natives can reliably navigate. The signs of salt corrosion and water damage are everywhere. The waters advance, retreat and advance again, but the crazy city remains.

Of all of my Venice series, this was the hardest so far to edit. My first cut was over 30 photos, which I needed to get down to 10. What I’m trying to do here is present coherent series, which means that quite a few of my individual favourites didn’t make the final selection. But they’ll have their day in the sun.

Cosa sarebbe Venezia senza le gondole ? E una foto da Venezia senza una di quelle fatate imbarcazione, quelle trappole per turisti e fotografi ? A meta strada tra Doge e Disney, tra tradizione e tradimento. Pero sempre e per sempre ineluttabile.

(dettagli tecnici: tutti Olympus E-P3, M-Zuiko 45mm f/1.8)

Competing with the Rialto Bridge area for the Cliché To End All Clichés of Venice is the Piazza San Marco / Riva degli Schiavoni area.  A long exposure shot of gondolas with the tower of San Giorgio Maggiore in the background is absolutely obligatory for any self-respecting Fine Art Photographer. Not to mention Rough Art Photographers, or indeed tourists. Street Photographers would, of course, rather take an artfully oblique, grainy black and white shot of a Fine Art Photography prancing around with his (usually) tripod, taking a long exposure shot of gondolas with the tower of San Giorgio Maggiore in the background.

But that’s no reason whatsoever to avoid the obvious, and here’s my take on it. The lack of people in some shots confirms that unlike Street Photographers who are still tucked up in bed dreaming of their first espresso, Urban Landscape Photographers get up early.

(for any technically minded visitors - the first shot here is taken with a Ricoh GRD II, all the rest are Sigma DP2 Merrill)