§ Workshop — Foundation
WHERE WATER REMEMBERS LIGHT
Venice, Italy
Departs · 18 January 2027 · 6 days
Participants · 6 · Spots remaining 6
Seven days exploring Venice through the photographer’s gaze, following the uncertain boundary between what the city reveals and what it merely allows us to glimpse. A visual journey in which documentary observation meets poetic storytelling, and every image becomes both a record of a real place and, at the same time, of its apparition.
Venice will be more than the destination of the workshop: it will be its living material. We will walk through alleyways still immersed in the silence of morning, cross squares where time seems to have gathered at the foot of ancient façades, and sail towards the islands as the lagoon dissolves all sense of distance. We will follow the movement of water, the transformations of light, and the traces left by time on stone, wood, walls, and faces.
We will not seek the monumental Venice of postcards, motionless in its beauty and already reproduced countless times. Instead, we will search for a more secret, fragile, and unstable city: reflections broken by the passing of a boat, a figure disappearing into the mist, the tide line etched into the plaster, a window illuminated for a few fleeting moments, or the everyday gesture of someone who continues to inhabit a place suspended between splendour and erosion.
Photography will become an instrument of exploration, but also a form of listening. We will learn to wait for the light to reveal the invisible structure of a scene; to recognise the moment when an apparently ordinary detail acquires the weight of a symbol; and to observe how human presence enters into dialogue with a landscape shaped by water over the centuries. Every image will emerge from the meeting of precision, sensitivity, and time.
The workshop will embrace the approach of great photographic reportage: close attention to the territory, respect for its people, and the ability to transform direct experience into a coherent visual narrative. We will not simply collect isolated images. We will construct sequences capable of conveying the rhythm of the city, its contradictions, its silences, and the complex relationship between beauty, everyday life, and environmental fragility.
The lagoon will be observed as a living organism. The tides mark the rhythm of its breathing; the mist continually redraws its boundaries; the wind alters the colour of the water and the distance between things. Venice will emerge as the result of an ancient and precarious balance between nature and human ingenuity, permanence and transformation, memory and loss.
Each participant will be invited to develop a personal point of view. Some may follow the traces of everyday life, others the changing landscape, and others still the abstract forms created by the encounter between water, architecture, and light. Through field explorations, practical assignments, group reviews, and editing sessions, the photographs will gradually come together to form an individual narrative.
The result will not be a simple travel diary, but an intimate geography of Venice: a map shaped by moments of waiting, unexpected encounters, detours, and sudden revelations. A narrative in which what has been seen becomes intertwined with what has been imagined, and in which every photograph preserves something that, at the very moment it appears, already seems about to vanish.
Where Water Remembers Light is an invitation to photograph Venice not as a motionless image of the past, but as a living and vulnerable presence. To observe what endures, what changes, and what is at risk of disappearing. To allow the water—the city’s silent keeper—to guide our gaze and return to us, for a single moment, the memory of light.
What Makes This Experience Truly Exceptional
There are two Venices.
The first is the city encountered on foot: the Venice of bridges, calli, campi and familiar views—the magnificent city seen by millions of visitors every year. The second is a more secret Venice: the city understood by Venetians, whose true streets are made of water and whose character reveals itself only from the lagoon and the intimate canals threading through its ancient heart.
Through its partnership with Venice Photographic Workshop, London Photographic Workshop can open this second city to our participants, offering a photographic experience that no conventional tour could reproduce.
At the heart of this partnership is Manta, an authentic Venetian working boat. After a lifetime of service, when she was destined to be dismantled and reduced to timber, Manta was rescued and returned to working life by a traditional Venetian boatyard. She was carefully transformed into a vessel designed specifically to carry photographers, assistants and professional equipment safely through the lagoon.
For two days, Manta will become our moving studio and privileged observation point. From her deck, close to the surface of the water, we will photograph Venice as a living maritime city: its façades rising directly from the canals, its reflections broken by passing boats, its working edges, its quiet waterways and the changing relationship between stone, light and tide.
Her size and character allow us to move through parts of the Venetian waterways rarely entered by ordinary tour boats. Water taxis travel for speed and destination; gondolas generally follow established routes. Manta was reborn for something entirely different: to give photographers the time, stability and freedom required to observe, wait and work from the water.
This is not simply Venice photographed from a boat. It is Venice understood through water—the element that built it, sustains it and continues to shape its memory.
§ The Itinerary
The Itinerary
§ Phase 01
THE FIRST LIGHT
Venice Before It Becomes an Image
An early walk through the quieter city introduces observation, timing and the visual relationship between water, architecture and human presence. The afternoon establishes each participant’s personal line of inquiry.
§ Phase 02
THE INHABITED CITY
Gesture, Work and Everyday Passage
Documentary fieldwork follows residents, thresholds, markets and the subtle choreography of daily life. The emphasis is on respectful proximity and on recognising meaning before raising the camera.
§ Phase 03
THE LAGOON
Distance Dissolved by Water
A day shaped by vaporetto routes and selected lagoon islands. Water, weather and the changing separation between objects become the structure of a visual sequence.
§ Phase 04
TIDE
The City’s Other Clock
The field plan follows the measured tide and its effect on steps, quays, reflections and pedestrian movement. Participants work on repetition, variation and the transformation of familiar space.
§ Phase 05
MIST · WINTER LIGHT
What Venice Allows Us to Glimpse
A weather-led day devoted to fragile visibility: fog, rain, reflected brightness or clear winter light. The route remains open so the photographic language can follow the condition that actually arrives.
§ Phase 06
THE SEQUENCE
Where Water Remembers Light
A final dawn session is followed by editing and sequencing. Each participant constructs an intimate geography of Venice in which observation, atmosphere and human trace form a coherent visual narrative.
§ Photo Gear
Photo Gear
Bring your own way of seeing.
Everyone will tell you what to bring. This is better than that. That other thing is essential. In photography, what goes into someone else’s bag always seems to be everybody’s business.
I would start with you: what you want to say, the images you are looking for, the tools you feel at home with. Heavy equipment tires you out. A slower process takes time. Yet a view camera may give you precisely the image you imagined; a collodion portrait may reward all that preparation with the wonder of the person receiving it. For me, that is worth something.
If your photographic journey revolves around unusual or demanding equipment, talk to us. Tell us what you want to make before deciding that travelling with us could never work for you.
Essential Requirements
Tripod
A sturdy, portable tripod is essential for dawn, sunset, night photography and carefully constructed compositions. Carbon fibre is particularly suitable because it combines stability with lower weight.
Ziplock
Last but not least, two of photography’s greatest secrets: Ziplock & Bongo Ties. Simple resealable food bags to help keep dust and moisture away from your equipment, and elastic ties with a small wooden toggle to secure cables, covers and all those little things that refuse to stay put.
Protecting individual pieces of equipment—preferably with two bags—is a light, practical defence when wind carries sand into every opening.
What we bring for you
There are a few wonders in our bags for you, too. Medium format cameras — yes, including the splendid HASSELBLAD X2D II 100C — to pick up and use. We travel with COLORCHECKER, a complete set of LEE Filters and a matte box, SEKONIC meters and PocketWizard triggers. When the project calls for them, we add PROFOTO and BRONCOLO flash, ARRI continuous lighting, MATTHEWS grip and SUNBOUNCE systems for shaping natural light. Tools that make you want to try again, and see what happens when light finally takes the shape you had in mind.
And then there is Luca, your guide: a true fine art photographer — read: a rather unusual photographer. Do not be surprised if view cameras, ultra-panoramic film cameras and other delightful oddities emerge from his bags. Shh… they are part of the experience, too.
Need a backup camera, a particular lens, a tripod, a head or a monopod? Tell us before departure so we can plan what to bring. Our enthusiasm is considerable. Our carrying capacity has its limits.
Bring your own way of seeing, and we will shape the journey to make room for it.
§ Personal Gear
Personal Gear
Over the years, we have developed a welcome package to make your stay as comfortable as possible and help you make the most of your experience. It brings together a thoughtful selection of essentials—things that are easily forgotten or can be difficult to arrange from abroad.
We begin with one of the most important: staying connected.
Your welcome package includes:
Everything is packed in a protective, waterproof expedition dry bag, ready to accompany you throughout the experience.
§ Travel Conditions
Travel Conditions
Venice is one of the world’s great international destinations: well connected, widely known, and endlessly documented. There is little to explain that visitors do not already expect. What matters is simply to arrive prepared to walk slowly, travel by water, and accept the city’s rhythm: a place shaped by tides, crowds, detours, weather, and the changing density of light.
If you choose to arrive at an airport other than Venice, but still within easy reach, there is no need to worry. We can collect you directly, or provide all the information you need to join us independently. Should you require any guidance or assistance in planning your journey to join us, we would be delighted to hear from you.
§ Accommodation
Accommodation
Inhabiting Venice
Over the years, we have welcomed to Venice many groups of photographers: people already devoted to the city, as well as travellers encountering it for the first time. Each arrives with a different way of looking, and often with a different idea of how they wish to inhabit the city. For this reason, we always recommend discussing accommodation together before the workshop.
A Place Within the Rhythm
We have a carefully considered proposal ready for the group, chosen for its position, comfort and relationship with the daily rhythm of Venice. Should you prefer to make your own arrangements, or should the group wish to explore something more distinctive, unusual or unconventional, we will be equally pleased to help. We have done so many times before, and will gladly help you find the place that feels right for your stay.
The Final Night
The additional night after the last working day is offered by London Photographic Workshop, allowing the final edit, farewell and departure to unfold without haste.
§ Safety & Accessibility
Safety & Accessibility
Venice welcomes the world, yet moves to a rhythm all its own. In its historic centre, built on water, we travel on foot through narrow lanes and squares, up and down the many bridges over the canals, or aboard the vaporetti, Venice's waterbuses. Walks, waits and stops all take time: here, getting somewhere is part of the journey.
Expect steps, walking and boat boarding during the workshop; comfortable shoes, light luggage and sure footing are welcome companions. Please bear in mind that stepped bridges can create physical access barriers. If you have specific mobility needs, contact us before booking so that we can check the workshop route and any accessible alternatives. Venice reveals itself one bridge at a time.
§ Post-Workshop
Post-Workshop
After leaving Venice, where water, mist and the inhabited city had made each image a record of an apparition, the images need the companions who walked that fragile geography together.
I did not include six months of post-workshop contact by chance, nor as a simple service.
Many years ago, I was teaching an online course that could easily have felt impersonal. Instead, when it ended, the group did not want to dissolve. We had never all sat around the same table, yet years later we are still a living community. From that experience came conversations, magazines, books, friendships and shared ways of looking.
It taught me how valuable a small circle of people can be when they have lived and worked through an experience together.
For this reason, every workshop includes six months of continued contact at no additional cost: a private group, image sharing, feedback, and a form of ongoing tuition shaped by cultural prompts — a book, an image, a thought, an exhibition, or an occasion that may open a new direction in the work.
The event ends. The adventure in photography begins.
§ The Light Map
The Light Map
18–24 January 2027. Venice offers a little over nine hours of daylight. Sunrise advances from approximately 07:45 to 07:41, while sunset extends from approximately 16:57 to 17:06.
Winter light arrives low and often filtered through moisture. Early morning can reduce the city to muted colour, softened edges and figures briefly detached from their surroundings. When the sun appears, it travels close to the architecture, illuminating façades and reflections selectively rather than evenly.
The moon grows from waxing gibbous towards the full moon of 22 January, then begins to wane. Moonrise moves progressively towards sunset, creating a central photographic interval in which the illuminated lagoon and the rising moon may share the same sky.
January is cool and humid, with seasonal temperatures commonly around 0–7°C. Fog, rain and lagoon wind can make the cold feel more pronounced, while clear conditions produce a harder, more crystalline light. These are climatic tendencies, not a forecast.
The tide remains one of the city’s essential clocks. It alters reflections, steps, quays and passages, changing both the geometry of the image and the movement of daily life. Exact tide predictions will be checked close to departure and incorporated into each day’s field plan.
Here the Light Map follows water as an instrument of memory. We watch the city appear, dissolve and return through mist, tide, reflected light and the measured patience of winter.