Venice 2009 SIGNS OF LIFE
As if Venice wasn't already the most photographed city in the world (probably), the advent of digital cameras means that now anyone with a mobile phone is a photographer. In Venice, it sometimes seems as though everyone is shooting everything, all at once, all the time, non-stop and willy nilly. It's one the wonderful benefits of cheap, digital technology, available to all and Venice is so preposterously photogenic that it's practically impossible, even for the most inexpert snapper, not to get a decent shot, eventually. I've taken a fair few typically postcard views myself on occasion and been quite pleased with the results.
That said, it's not unusual to see dozens of tourists jostling for position like paparazzi, atop some tiny bridge somewhere, eager to get the big scoop on what...? Usually, nothing in particular, maybe an unremarkable little side canal, similar to a hundred others, with no subject, no focus, no point and no idea. Equally absurd is the sight of more well-heeled visitors, attempting night shots from moving vaporetti, holding down the flash hoods of their expensive DSLRs (as if the cost of the camera were key) because they haven't bothered to work out how to take pictures on any setting other than auto-everything.
In the midst of all this frenzied historical theme-park snapping, it is easy to forget that actually, real people still live and breathe and work and sleep in this city. Just. The native population is reported to be dwindling rapidly. So, as a little extra-Biennale side project, here is a record of some remaining evidence of indigenous inhabitation, come upon along the way.
Again, all taken on an iPhone 3G, with a little fiddling about on TiltShiftGen afterwards. I'm quite pleased with the results.
