making plans

last summer, my friend j and i went to the venice biennial, stayed a few days and then went on to the south of france by night-train. the second part of our holiday was spent near arles, where we went to see the photography festival.

we are already making plans for next year's biennial, but we're still on the fence on whether to go for the opening week or later, when it's quieter. what would you do?

it was one of the most inspiring trips i've ever made. art, lots of art, so much sun, boats and water, a garden with a summer kitchen and a pool. markets overflowing with fresh fruit and greens, good wine, wonderful hosts at our b&b. next year is more likely to be a short trip to venice, but i still can't wait.

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corner view: white

when i heard what theme natsumi had chosen for this week's corner view (find more corner view links over at jane's spain daily) i wasn't sure if i even had much white, or what to photograph if i didn't find anything. so i went to have a look through my archive, which was quite interesting. there's definitely not much white around - i seem to be drawn to stronger or darker, muted colours lately. i wonder why. it's not a conscious thing.

here's what i found then (including some almost-whites): cherry trees in my neighbourhood, their pale, pale pink petals looking almost white in that overexposed shot - one of my absolute favourites, perhaps because it's from the first ever roll i took with my praktica. then impressions from venice, early this summer - bed, and then breakfast at the hotel. followed by santa maria della salute, angel detail, and an espresso maker at the scandinavian pavilion at the venice biennial. finally, a modern architectural concrete detail, spotted right next to the opulent russian embassy in berlin.

no interesting thoughts or stories this time, i'm afraid - my brain seems to be producing mostly white noise. a lot, an awful lot to do until the weekend. and the text i'm working on is all-consuming. have a good day!

soundtrack

last week was crap from start to finish. to be honest, i think this may not just be down to the fact that i've been working for weeks without a day's break and was sick, but still had to work, but may also have been weird side-effects of the antibiotics. although i have to work this weekend too - this time at my desk, translating - i'm determined to enjoy the sunshine and take a little time off tomorrow.

so here's my soundtrack for this weekend:

keren ann, lay your head down

johann sebastian bach, goldberg variations played by glenn gould

coralie clément, indécise

on a different note - i think it may be time to say good-bye to venice. it was a good time. here's to travelling with a good friend, seeing lots of art, being surrounded by water and amazing architecture. to the unbelievable light. thanks to you all for coming along! (if i may, i'll show you more pictures from the second part of trip to france next week.)

a note on my pics (since i still haven't figured out to do captions that look good - tips welcome):

1st - funky lights by artist tobias rehberger at the venice biennial bookshop and cafeteria in the giardini 

2nd - said crazy cafeteria, one of the art works that won a golden lion

3rd - oh to travel with a good friend, thanks jo!

4th - dutch pavilion with a series of amazing art works by fiona tan

5th - light and shadow in front of the belgian pavilion

venice: buddha and breakfast

outside our room in venice was a corridor with three buddha statues. they looked so calm and peaceful. in the morning, we had breakfast on the roof terrace just opposite our room. a feast for the eyes. the bread was divine. tasted like a a cross-over of white bread and unsweetened scones. particularly the one with walnuts was a dream. 

venice: faded postcards and singapore pavilion

i still can't get over the light in venice. so bright. the pictures i took on the vaporetto from the icelandic and singapore pavilion to the arsenale came out like faded postcards.

the singapore pavilion was in the same palazzo as the icelandic pavilion, just one flight of stairs up. isn't that chandelier amazing? the project featured there was a take on movie productions from the 1950s in singapore.

venice: icelandic pavilion

for me, one of the highlights of this year's venice biennial was ragnar kjartansson's performance at the icelandic pavilion on the grand canal. he is basically spending six months, the entire duration of the biennial, painting his cigarette-smoking, beer-drinking, speedo-wearing male model in a rather swish setting, the ground floor of an old venetian palazzo. i asked him what they do in aqua alta, when the city is flooded: "well, it has already happened. we just take our shoes off." read more about his work here.

venice: pears and washing

before i go to bed let me quickly post these two. couldn't resist that pear. sometimes, my still-life urge just takes over. as it did that morning in venice just after breakfast. so i had to take that green fruit back to the room and arrange it on that lovely, freshly pressed napkin on the unmade bed. the light was beautiful. later that day we passed that calle and the washing outside that window had me stop in my tracks and take a picture.

good night!

venice: the light

marking malo's words that one of the most special things about venice is the light, i took film with different speeds. still, i underestimated the intenseness of the light and so many of my pictures turned out to be slightly overexposed. i rather like it, though. it almost seems as if i'm looking at faded photos in a much loved and leafed-through album.

see the big church with the white dome? that's santa maria della salute and our hotel was right behind it. a vaporetto stop was virtually on our doorstep. from here we set off to the various venues of the venice biennale - the giardini, the arsenale, numerous palazzi across town - as well as to the pinault foundation at palazzo grassi. the second, only just opened venue of the pinault foundation at punta della dogana was right next to santa maria della salute. it's that building on the third photo with the gilded sculpture on top, at the very tip of the dorsoduro island and less a than five-minute walk from our hotel.

and yes, that guy with the red shopping trolley sitting by the vaporetto stop was indeed fishing.

some venice

on the very last day of june i hopped on a plane to venice. the first time i've ever been. friends who have been, told me that they found the huge crowds a bit of a turn-off and that next time round they'd prefer to go in spring or winter. so i went with mixed feelings - looking very much forward to it but wondering if the place would live up to my expectations. i shouldn't have worried. we went from wednesday through friday (avoiding the weekend) and had our hotel on dorsoduro, off san marco, where the biggest crowds tend to be. which meant that we had it nice and quiet, while being close to a vaporetto stop, so it was easy to get everywhere. the hotel, in fact, was a dream. a treat from a friend, a christmas and birthday present rolled in one, and what a beautiful one! a small boutique kind of place. just wonderful. i could rave on. 

when we arrived, it was incredibly hot and we had gotten up at an ungodly hour, so decided to sit on the terrace for a while and have a bit of a rest. when we finally set off for a walk around town, it was already very late afternoon and the light started having that soft evening glow. we crossed over to san marco via the accademia bridge. and there it was: the quintessential view. no wonder canaletto liked it here.

p.s.: had seven rolls of film processed. there are tons of pictures. if you care to see and read more about the venice-south-of-france-trip, stay tuned. and let me know when it starts getting boring . . .

beautiful disasters & giveaway

have you heard about beautiful disasters yet? it's hosted by london's fab photographer's gallery as a tie-in to their current exhibition the photographic object and calls for pictures that seem to be 'disasters' at first glance but may be anything from an accident to an intended alteration or even mutilation of a photograph. you can still register your pictures until 14th june - go for it! if you just want to take a look though, do. and you can vote for the pictures in their online gallery without even registering.

i've posted some of my pictures on the beautiful disasters microsite (some of which you may recognise). you can vote for them, too, i you care to do so... in any case, have fun browsing their online gallery, some of the pictures are rather stunning! go discover...

as to my giveaway, the little venice travel guide book, it goes to malo! thanks to all of you for your tips and ideas for my trip to venice and arles - they are all really appreciated! plus, thanks to you, i now have a really good reading list and shall be thinking of you as i lie by the pool and lazily flick through the pages of my book (ha, that was mean... sorry... :)) malo, if you let me know your address, i'll get it off to you (email me at twinklestar(at)gmx.de). i'd like to also include a print of one of my photos. if there's one in particular that you'd like, let me know.

venice & arles and a little giveaway

it's june already, how on earth did that happen? this also means though, that i'm on count-down for my first ever proper holiday (weekend breaks aside) since starting out as a freelancer a good four years ago. oh dear, how did that happen - four years without a proper holiday?! but there it is, and on july 1st, i shall be heading for the airport, bound for venice, oh yes! together with a friend, i'll visit the biennial, stay a few days and then take the train to arles, where we'll have rooms at a lovely mas in a village nearby and make the most of the summer in the south of france (as well as of the recontres de la photographie, the photo festival in arles). can't wait!

now, i'm loathe to admit it, but i've never been to venice before and only been once, briefly, to arles. and that's where you come in. i'd love to hear your special tips and suggestions for about anything on these two places - where to eat, drink, which corners (hidden or not) to visit, which books to pack (i'm thinking fiction here), anything. so if you have any ideas or happen to read something interesting - let me know in the comments and there'll be a little giveaway, too. on tuesday, i'll randomly pick the lucky winner of a little wallpaper city guide on venice. go ahead, tell all!

p. s. : after the holiday, there'll also be a giveaway in form of pictures i'm intending to take while i'm there. stay tuned!