Marco Secchi

25/06/2026

New post is live on Through the Lens.
It is about what happens before you raise the camera. Not settings, not gear. The skill of reading a street scene before anything worth shooting has occurred.
Light direction. Geometry. How people move through a space. These are the things that separate photographers who consistently make strong images from those who occasionally get lucky.
The free section covers the foundation. Paid subscribers get the full piece: how I work a scene in Venice, London, and Budapest, the waiting position, how to read people before they act, and the honest answer to what you do when the scene gives you nothing.
Link in the comments.

25/06/2026

https://substack.com/profile/23308165-marco-secchi/note/c-282358156?

A storm was coming in hard. The sky turned that heavy grey, the water went this strange electric turquoise. And one boat out there, alone, not rushing. That contrast is what stopped me. Not the storm itself. The silence just before it swallows everything. The Leica saw it the way I felt it.

24/06/2026

23/06/2026

A year ago I started a photography newsletter. I had no clear plan and no idea where it would go.
Today, 5,500 people read it. Two long-form articles every week. Three Notes every day. A Chat. The Red Pen Sessions coming back. A podcast returning. And several other things in development.
I wrote a post this week that maps the whole publication. Everything that exists, where to find it, and what is changing as we move into year two. It is the kind of post I should have written months ago, because most readers only ever see the newsletter that lands in their inbox and have no idea how much else is there every single day.
If you follow my work, or if you are curious about photography as a craft or a way of making a living, it is worth a read.
One honest announcement in there too about pricing, with plenty of notice and no surprises.
Link in the comments.

23/06/2026

This is Budapest too!

Budapest has many stages, but the best performances are often the smallest ones. A doorway. A keyboard. Two chairs. A closed shop behind them. A city passing in front of them. This is the Budapest I keep coming back to, not the postcard version, not the grand river view, but the quiet theatre of ord...

22/06/2026

This is one of the most-read pieces I have published.

I am resharing it today because with the price change coming July 1st, it felt like the right moment to remind you what this publication is actually about.

Not tips. Not hacks. Not "how to get more likes."

How photographers build real, sustainable income. The mindset, the decisions, the things nobody tells you because they are either too uncomfortable or too obvious to package into a course.

This one is free to read. The rest of the series is in the paid
archive.

If you have been on the fence about subscribing, start here.

Forget the fluff. Here’s how I built a six-figure photography career—without weddings, gimmicks, or waiting for permission.

21/06/2026

in Motovun , Istria...

5:00 AM in front of Motovun. No autofocus. No screen. No instant preview. Just an analogue camera, a tripod, and a sea of fog slowly filling the valley below. Film photography has a way of teaching patience. By the time you know whether you got the shot, the moment is already history. A workshop in....

20/06/2026

A small note for those of you on Flipboard.
I am quite active there and I personally curate a few magazines that might interest you.
On the photography side: photography, black and white, film, and Leica. On the travel and place side: Venice, Italy, Slovenia, Budapest, and Istria.
If you are already on Flipboard or curious to join, you are very welcome to follow along here:

www.flipboard.com/

No algorithm. Just things I find worth saving.

Visual Storyteller Represented by Getty Images | Director of Photography | Digital Content Creator | Photographic Consultant | Innovation Leader | Specialist in directing visual storytelling and monetising high-quality photojournalism, working with the world’s leading media brands. Media and photo...

20/06/2026

We Stopped Photographing. We Started Performing.

Something shifted quietly, and most of us did not notice when it happened...... READ IT HERE

We Stopped Photographing. We Started Performing. Something shifted quietly, and most of us did not notice when it happened. We used to make photographs and then decide what to do with them. Now we make photographs for somewhere. For the feed, for the story, for the algorithm, for the engagement wind...

19/06/2026

The light doesn't announce itself in Istria.

It simply arrives, quietly, turning the Adriatic into something you can barely justify calling water. Poreč at dusk, shot on the Leica. Rocks, stillness, a skyline that has been standing here since the Romans.

This is the kind of light that changes the way you see. And that is exactly what we chase together.

I run intimate 1-to-1 photography workshops across Istria, tailored to your pace, your eye, and your questions. A few days. Real places. No crowds, no templates.

If this frame speaks to you, the workshop might too.

👉 msecchi.com/istria-photography-workshop