cover image Venice

Venice

David Hamilton. Arcade Publishing, $35 (95pp) ISBN 978-1-55970-020-7

The opening 20 pages of this attractive collection of photographs of Venice juxtapose Hamilton's hazy, romantic black-and-whites of today with photos of 100 years ago, a section accompanied by a brief essay by Lauritzen ( Palaces of Venice ) describing the city's political and cultural history, the pomp and power of the Doges and the ``Napoleonic holocaust''--the despoliation of conquered Venice in 1797. An additional 60 of Hamilton's ( Homage a la Peinture) color photos follow, his soft, gauzy focus forming impressionistic images (remarkably free of touristic hordes) of canals, gondolas, gardens, bridges and buildings. While some of the views suffer from fuzziness (as if butter had been smeared on the camera lens), others are enhanced by the quality--a photo of the Grand Canal after Canaletto, two images of ferries, or vaporetti , at sunset, an ornamental gateway on the Rio Marin, a faraway shot of the cityscape from the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore. (Oct.)