Photography Requires Strong Will Power - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto, in Italian) is one of the most photographed landmarks in Venice.  I get its historical significance being the oldest bridge across the Grand Canal.  Personally, I don't think it's that artistically done.  Take a look at how its clunky body blocks most of the view into the water-way and the buildings behind it, you'll see my point.  But, it does offer an opportunity to get above the water.  And water is what I love.

So, despite all the touristic activities around me, I saw a perfect canvas on water which I could create on.  For me, staying laser-sharp focused in that setting is not that difficult.  But if you are interested in going to the Rialto Market only to rub shoulders with many other tourists that followed the tour guide books there, sitting by the canal to sip wines and watch people (mostly tourists, again), feeding one of the many pigeons that have infested Venice, or rescuing the sunglass that went down the the bridge (this was supposedly an accident), you'd need some (really strong) will power to stay focused on the beauty that makes Venice Venice.  

I hear music gliding across the surface of the water.  Do you?

P.S. Give a holler, in the comment below, if you want to see more images made from Venice. :-)

Gondola-in-the-Warm-Hues-of-Reflections-Venice-Italy-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

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Ghetto is an Italian Word - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

It's not the first time that I heard this word in Italy.  But Venice is where the word was first spoken.

Now, I'm no historian and, in my opinion, what's written in history books may not always be that accurate.  But here's what I've gathered:

Although segregation of Jews existed in European communities earlier (for example, the name of an island that's separated from Venice by lagoon is Giudecca), Venetian ghetto was the first using such term in Europe.  In 1516, Jews were restricted to living in the Canneregio district of Venice, an abandoned site of a 14th-century foundry that used to produce cannons.  

It was enclosed by two guarded gates and no one was allowed to leave from sunset to dawn.  Restrictions on daily Jewish life continued for close to 300 years, until Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the Venetian Republic in 1797.  He removed the gates and gave all residents the freedom to live where they chose.

As history sees it, it was not the end of Jewish oppression...

Remember the question that I brought up in another post about Pitigliano?  Hint: you could kind of guess the answer now.

An-Entrance-to-the-Jewish-Ghetto-in-Venice-Italy-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

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B is for Barbiere in Pitigliano, Tuscany - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I love traveling in Italy.  Most of this amazing country has somehow resisted the influence of industrialization (and hence the outcome of "homogenization") and stayed adamant about its culture in food, social relationship and habits, in a way that I only remember in the country that I grew up in before it was bulldozed by capitalism.

This image was made when I was roaming the streets of Pitigliano in Tuscany (remember the town that grew out of rock?) at the best time of day (in my opinion) - after siesta time.  The whole town came out and the piazzas were filled with chatty men.  I poked my head into every door and window when my eyes were suddenly met with a scene that, in my mind, only exists in an old movie these days.  Time stayed still, no one was in a rush.  The present moment was all they cared about - be it the barber meticulously working on his client or the ones waiting...

Barber-Shop-in-Rock-City-of-Pitigliano-Grosseto-Tuscany-Italy-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

You know you will hear more about Italy's old charm from me in the future. :-)

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