Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you from foggy Venice!

Dear Friends,

This is just a quick message to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

As always, time has flown and this 2020 is about to come to an end. It shall be a year we'll all remember, in the good and in the bad.

I know it may sound selfish, but to my eyes, Venice has never been so beautiful and, to be totally honest with you, I fear the moment tourism will start again... Finally I see Venetians hanging around in Piazza San Marco, especially at lunch time when the sun is at its peak and warms up the atmosphere. To joke, Vittorio says we're like the pigeons, all curling up, standing still, waiting to be kissed by the sun. Besides, the stone seatings seem to have been made for this pandemic, all over a meter distant from one another, allowing us to experience our own city ;-)

I too spend more time in San Marco than before, starting from before dawn, when I go jogging, and continuing with random moments throughout the day, just to give her a glance ("gnanca vero me par" we'd say in Venetian dialect, meaning that it is so beautiful it almost seems unreal). When I tell my friends that San Marco is my gym, and that when it rains I am protected by its porticos, currently illuminated by the golden Christmas lights, they remind me how lucky I am... and I apologise if, despite you asking me, I have never taken pictures of that moment, but it's my 'me hour', a moment just for myself, and the more I age the more jealous I become of it.

I am very grateful because despite the general situation, I am working and have started collaborating with different eco-friendly companies in the food and fashion industries (mostly for advertising and social media campaigns), and regularly collaborate with Francesca of the teahouse and bookshop sullaluna, which you should know is one of my favourite places in town! I am very happy about this, because we meet every week and work on book and wine storytelling projects, thus I get to have my hands on several books both for children and adults, and I feel I always learn something new. She has a rich photography sector and I have fallen in love with the book 'Loving: A photographic history of men in love 1850-1950' and with all the books by Italian author Riccardo Falcinelli on art and design, which I hope will get translated in English soon because they are too interesting and well written to remain only in one language. There is one book in particular I can't stop consulting, titled 'Figure', and I might write something about it myself because it is all about how images have worked from the Renaissance to current times, with Instagram, rich of insights on composition and perception, as well as historical details.

Another project I'dlike to tell you about is the catalogue for my potter friend Valentina of VS Ceramics. She recently started an Etsy shop, so I helped her with the pictures. The collections are all inspired by the lagoon, and I would be so happy if you could have a look ad let us know what you think! Here's my page dedicated to her pottery, and from there I linked to her online store in case you'd like to support and bring home or gift someone with a piece of Venice! There will be more products coming soon... she's made so much that we had to meet twice to complete the job...

I've been busy also with a couple more photography projects, but I don't want to bore you too much with my life. I am not sure about the rules in your country, but in Italy we have severe restrictions during the Christmas holidays, a sort of Xmas lockdown, so this year we are having lunch at my mum's on the 24th and we still don't know about the 25th as there's been a Covid case in the family (please don't worry, the teenage girl is perfectly fine and realised it only because she was tested, while her father had high fever for a couple of days but is getting better) so ... it's quite probable that Vittorio and I will just stay home by ourselves and watch 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' on repeat, wearing pyjamas and snacking on roasted chestnuts and apple and pear chips, my new obsession. A sober Christmas, indulging in good reads and healthy snacks!

As for myself, I am going through a period of change. I am playing with still life pictures, and am developing a taste for extremely natural images. Sometimes I am afraid that my pictures may seem a bit too essential... I know I'm trying to remove a lot, like the background and also merely decorative objects, and it's not always easy to find the right rhythm, but I am working on it and hope to improve and take my work to a further level. It may take time, but it will be so worth it. Right now, it feels as if it's an up and down, some days I am really happy with my results, other days I hate everything, but I suppose it's part of the game, I just want to keep playing!

I hope you too are well and will spend a serene Christmas period, in whatever part of the world you are. So...bye for now, Merry Christmas and see you in 2021!!!!

XXX

Nicoletta