Photography Books on Venice

[jon w.]

I'm researching on how Venice has been photographed over the last

hundred and fifty years. In case anyone's interested in photos of the

city that escape from the normal postcard cliches, I discovered the

following:

 

Franco Fontana, Presenze veneziane, 1980. Fontana is a big name on the

Italian scene. This is colour work, pushed slide film by the look of

it (so that the shadows are deliberately rendered very deep, and the

colours saturated: abstract and planar).

 

Ferruccio Leiss, Immagini di Venezia, 1953, or a more recent study and

collection of images edited by Italo Zannier. B and W, a lot of foggy

and night shots. Exquisite tonal rendition, abstracting compositions,

backstreet architecture as well as classic landmarks: think Weston

meets Brassai. A great discovery for me, since I work a lot at night

too, so I am pleased to find myself part of a tradition.

 

Gianni Berengo Gardin - Gli anni di Venezia - a recent reprint of work

from the early 60s. Venetian version of Doisneau or similar warm

documentary, although there is a lot of interesting use of telephotos,

which give a cooler tone to some shots. He worked a lot on the public

ferries.

 

There are two books on Marghera - the industrial zone on the mainland

near Venice - with contributions from people like Lewis Baltz, and

Italian photographers like Luigi Gherri. I haven't checked them yet.

 

Fulvio Roiter has done some very popular photography books on the

city, which are undeniably very professional, but personally I find

them very touristy and cliched.

 

I read that the Neapolitan photographer Mimmo Jodice did a book on

Venice too, but I can't find any more specific reference to it. I like

his work (and that of his son, Francesco Jodice), so if anyone knows

more, please let me know.

[jon w.]

Oh yes, and I also read that (Magnum photographer) Ernst Haas did a book on Venice in colour, but need to find out more about that too.

[warren_x]

Washington Post columnist Frank Van Riper has been working for the past 6 years on a book on Venice in Winter, as well. It isn't ready yet, but it sounds like it might be interesting when it is.

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<A HREF="http://www.gvrphoto.com/">http://www.gvrphoto.com/</A>

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<A HREF="http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/index.htm">http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/index.htm</A>

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[david_henderson]

You'll find this hard to get, but it's one of the best books of

photographs of Venice,

 

Charlie Waite's Venice. George Philip 1989 ISBN:0-540-01190-8

[jon w.]

Thanks for the further reading suggestions.

[rob_bargad]

I?m out of the country at the moment, so I don?t have the publishing information, but there is a very limited edition printed of a book called VENEZIA, by Suzannah Wilshire Torem. It?s actually a beautiful portfolio of color plates, each one accompanied by a poem (an Italian poet who?s name I can?t recall now). The photography is stunning. I?ll be home in August and can give you more details on the book.

 

Sincerely, Rob Bargad

[jon w.]

Gianni Berengo Gardin (1965), Venise des Saisons, Lausanne, Switzerland: Editions Clairefontaine is stupendous - better than the later compilation I mentioned above, though the printing is cruder and harsher. It has really raised the bar for me. He shot Venice exactly how I would like to.

 

There are also two great books of 'new topography' style photography on Marghera, the industrial zone on the mainland near Venice. One has work by Italian photographers like Gabriele Basilico and Guido Guidi - the other work by American and international photographers like Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore and John Gossage.

[albert_hickson]

One of my biggest regrets is seeing a book in a second-hand bookshop and not buying it. At the time, I was looking for modern "coffee table" books on Venice will lots of pretty coloured photos. The book I saw was a limited edition (250, I think). I am not sure of the title, but it was something like "Photographs of Venice before 1900" (or it may have been "before 1914". The photos were all black and white. I saw the book a couple of times, but when I decided it would be a great idea to compare "then" and "now", the book had gone. It wasn't even very expensive! If anyone knows of the book I mean, please let me know the correct title.