Marco Secchi

25/10/2026

Six photographs from Venice Carnival, made across different years. Looking through them, I notice how much of each picture depends on what surrounds the costume: blue water, a pale column, the lamps of the Piazzetta, the first warm light behind the gondolas.

With so much happening in front of you, it is easy to give all your attention to the mask. But the background deserves just as much thought. Sometimes a small change of position is what makes the photograph come together.

My Venice Carnival 2027 workshops are almost fully booked, with limited availability remaining.

24/10/2026

The light along the gondolas first catches my eye here, then the person bent over between them. That shift is what interests me: a familiar view of Venice becomes a photograph of someone’s morning at work. How long did it take you to notice the person?

23/10/2026

I’ve put together a small gallery of fifteen black-and-white street photographs.

If you know my writing on Substack, this is a chance to spend a little more time with the photographs themselves.

I hope you’ll find a frame that makes you pause.

You can browse the gallery here:

Fifteen frames in black and white, photographed mainly with Leica cameras. A small selection of my street photography, brought together by an interest in ordinary life and the way light, gesture and timing can give it a different weight within the frame. Black and white is central to ho...

22/10/2026

Be suspicious of the photograph you keep repairing.

Darken a corner. Brighten the subject. Crop from the left. Try again.

If a frame needs a new rescue plan every time you open it, go back to the original and name the problem. That is a lesson for the next time you photograph, too.

Full post on Through the Lens:

How to recognise a quiet photograph, question your favourites, and edit with a little more honesty.

21/10/2026

19/10/2026

My personal take on Getty Images’ current situation, its Chapter 11 filing and the proposed restructuring.

17/10/2026

Some days, the washing does most of the composing. Colour, pattern and lines strung across a canal, with someone at an upstairs window quietly getting on with the day.

This is the Venice I enjoy photographing: ordinary life with plenty to notice. If you would like to explore it with me, my Venice workshops leave time to walk, look and find your own photographs along the way.

15/10/2026

From my on

Burano is often reduced to colour, as if its painted walls were enough to make the photograph. They are not.

The real interest lies in the relationships between colour, geometry, water and daily life. A strong photograph needs more than an attractive façade. It needs timing, structure and an awareness of what is happening at the edges of the frame.

That is what I look for when I work here, and what I teach in my private Venice photography workshops: how to move beyond the obvious view and build photographs that say something about a place rather than simply describe it.

If you would like to photograph Venice with me, message me for workshop details and availability.