Venezia Artigiana

Traces of the Future

Since 2018 I have visited Venice once or twice a year to research the Venetian crafts and the artisans, their workshops, their tradition. And to document their attempts to survive the perils of the modern world, namely mass tourism, and cheap "replicas" of the traditional Venetian products, such as masks, gondola models, woven products, and marbled paper.

In my photographic career there is a common thread running through my work and that thread is called 'Traces'. The traces people leave behind. Whether it concerns dilapidated buildings, factories, structures in a state of disrepair, trenches from the First World War in France or abandoned villages.
In this case, also the change in the use of the property in Venice. The shops that remained behind because of the rising rent or because the retiring craftsman or woman could not find a successor. Thus, leaving traces.

While working on this project, I started to realize that maybe I was documenting and photographing traces, but then the traces of the future. If the tide does not turn, anything that is not profitable enough will not survive and my photos will be the traces of what once was. But if the tide can be turned, they will be a good documentation of practicing artisans and will be a showcase for their successors.

When I started this project, I thought of making a nice coffee table book with beautiful photos, portraits of Venetian craftsmen in honor of these craftsmen. But the longer I worked on the project, the more this wouldn't do justice to the artisans. More information and some history of the workshops should be added. For the more historical places their history and possibly photos from the past, and if available, the founders. Also, young artisans telling their motivation for starting a craft business in Venice. And I didn't want to limit it to Venice, but also include the other islands in the lagoon where craft skills are practiced: Murano, Burano, Torcello, Mazzorbo, Pellestrina.

This project on artisanal life on the lagoon islands is not only an account of the status quo, but it is also dedicated to the artisans, their families, their habitat, their way of life. I hope it can contribute to improving the situation and helping to end the ongoing decline of these unique communities and the unique natural life in the lagoon. Life on a human scale.

The photos that will be included in the project are close-ups of the hands of craftsmen, the history of the workshops, the craftsmen's work, and the portraits here on the site.

The portraits are threefold. A portrait of the craftsman, a portrait of the workspace and a portrait of the craftsman in the workspace. I have mainly chosen this form of portrait to show the craftsman in his daily environment and to show how they form a unity. This way of looking shows my architectural background. Architecture as we usually see it, is designed and often a calling card for the ideas of the architect, owner, client, and the era in which it was built. In the case of the artisans, the space has grown around the activity of the person occupying it with everything he or she needs to make a product. It's timeless. That's what I want to show in the portraits.