Venice in Pictures and Words By Chris Ceaser
This presentation, the last for the 2020/2021 season, was a brief history of the city and state of Venice from the 400's to the present day illustrated with his Chris’s own photographs and the works of artists through the centuries.
Chris divided his presentation into chapters - an introduction, Byzantine, Venetian Gothic, Hope and finally Sex! A really nice idea to lead us through the story of Venice. Particularly helpful was the 'plan' of the lagoon with Venice and the surrounding islands.
The city is built in a lagoon on thousands and thousands of trees driven into the mud with a level platform on top! Chris' images of these man made islands were a joy to see. The Byzantine period with their square windows and simple arches are to be found all over the city and indeed allow us to compare the paintings of Canaletto with a photo taken from the same spot today.
In the Venetian Gothic period, 1100 - 1450, Venice grew its wealth despite the fact they could not grow meat or veg! Instead they traded in salt, dried from the salt water of the lagoon. It was this period that the Ducal system began; such a good system of government that it lasted 1,100 years! Chris gave us the story of Enrico Dandolo, the Massacre of The Latins and the first Crusade including the Shameful Glory.
After the break we moved into the Roman Renaissance, 1400 - 1650, and the use of Murano Glass as decoration on houses - more beautiful photographs from Chris as examples. Then the plague in 1575 and the achievements of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama who for the first time linked Europe and Asia by an ocean route and brought trade in Venice to its knees. But Venice bounced back with the first public bank ever in 1587, and once again beautiful photographs from Chris.
The presentation drew to a close with Sex! The Baroque, 1600 - 1830, a life of Casanova, the paintings of Turner, the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte and the sober prediction that Venice has only 80 years left
All this revealing story lavishly illustrated with magnificent photographs, most taken using wide angle lenses and all beautifully seen, captured and worked. A joy to listen to a presenter who is clearly in love with his subject.
The images shown above were provided by Chris Ceaser Photography to illustrate last night’s talk.
About Special Presentations:
Since March 2020 Norwich and District Photographic Society has hosted 46 Special Presentations featuring inspirational photographers from all four corners of the globe. Thank you Chris we could not have wished for a better final presentation to close this recent chapter of our history.
The programme from September 2021 through to the end of 2022 is now well advanced and has been designed to offer a broad range of excellent speakers who will cover, as in past seasons, a far reaching range of photographic genre. We are delighted to announce that Jane Odell FRPS will open the Autumn season of Special Presentations on Tuewsday 7th September 2021 with a highly illustrated talk during which we shall discover ‘what goes on at the bottom of her garden’.
Every month at Norwich and District Photographic Society there is the opportunity to hear inspirational photographic talks by photographers who are recognised to be at the top of their game and renowned specialists in their field of photography. The quality and range of subjects included in these Special Presentations are we believe unequalled both here in Norfolk and much further afield. Further, arguably alone they more than justify the cost of becoming a member of the Society.