Tag Archives: Venice

Breakfast on the Orient Express – ruined in the darkroom

As I  have previously mentioned, I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I took my old, trusty Pentax K1000 with me to Venice on the Orient Express and took some black and white shots of the train…. The images below are of breakfast on the Orient Express, which is served to passengers in their cabins.

I  processed the film in the darkroom at West Buckland School. I’d remembered most of the processing guidelines I’d learnt in the 1970s and I had a foolproof instruction sheet, with timings for the Ilford HP5 (400 asa) etc. – nothing could go wrong.

Half way through processing the film I noticed a chink of light coming in from below the door – the film was ruined but here are a couple more photographs that might be interesting?

Travel – 35mm images go wrong in Venice

View to St Marks Square

This gallery contains 4 photos.

I haven’t used a 35mm camera for years. I recently decided to take my old Pentax K1000 with me to Venice. I took some great black and white shots from our hotel window, looking out over the Grand Canal towards … Continue reading ?

Nasher Sculpture Garden – Venice – The Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in Venice. Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst, purchased this building in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern designed building, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is an 18th century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti.

The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim’s home for thirty years and was opened as a gallery in April 1980 after her death in 1979. The garden in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, which has a varied collection of objects. There is some interesting stuff in this intimate space but…

Three Standing Figures, 1953

Bronze, 73.2 x 68 x 29 cm, including base

Henry Moore

I have always associated Henry Moore as being a sculptor who created ‘blobby’ organic forms that have weight and feminine curves.

This spiky bronze has derivative influences varying from African art and to the Surrealist sculpture of Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. If you get close to the sculpture there are redeeming features but the static poses of the figures and the clumsy references to an eclectic range of styles really exposes the failures of this piece – not a great sculpture – if you compare it to the Giacometti that stands nearby…

Easter Sunday in Venice – #cipriani

Wow what a hotel…

…and what an amazing Easter Sunday – the view from the bedroom window has got to be one of the best ever!

The church bells rang out from dawn and the smell of Spring followed the call, fresh, new and slightly cool.

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Art ?

There is so much art in Venice to see – I must admit I have neglected the galleries, except the Guggenheim, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where Peggy Guggenheim lived and which has a couple of great Pollocks, my favorite being Two, 1943–45 and a typical Bacon (Study for Chimpanzee).