“One, No One and Fifty Thousand" – A Photographic Tribute to the Soul of Venice

“One, No One and Fifty Thousand” is my latest published book — the result of a ten-year journey into the private homes of the last true Venetians. A book so eagerly awaited that it sold out immediately upon release and has now become a collector’s item.

This is more than a photo book. It’s a contemporary fresco, woven from faces, places, and untold stories — a visual archive of a world slowly disappearing behind the romantic postcard image of Venice.

At the heart of this work is the idea of the "invisible city" — the real Venice that hides behind doors and walls, in the quiet intimacy of everyday homes. Here live the last Venetians, portrayed where they feel most themselves. Fleeting moments captured forever, telling of a world increasingly at risk.

Over time, every city creates its own relationship with space — shaped by its stories, rituals, and knowledge. The visible city and invisible city merge, just like body and soul, into one living organism.

In 1951, Venice was home to 174,808 residents. In August 2022, the population fell below 50,000 — a historic threshold, sounding the alarm for other art cities facing the same fate.

These photographs bear witness to an era. They are fragments of a fragile civilization — artifacts of art that, one day, may help scholars understand what was lost.

From prestigious palaces and historic homes to worn-out social housing, the portraits reveal the dignity and struggle of a people holding on. A silent resistance. A battle for survival — told through spaces, expressions, and the soul of a city still fiercely alive.

My other published books

My first book was “Venice on the edge of light”, a four-year journey, trying to catch the best light, just after dawn or before sunset. It was presented to the public and the press in the prestigious Café Florian in San Marco’s square. 

For the presentation of the book was chosen an essay by Giorgio De Chirico:

“Venice somehow stands apart from Italian life – indeed, from terrestrial life itself. It is another planet altogether. There is something dreamlike about it. What I have always liked about Venice is the sky. Or perhaps one should say “the skies”, for the vast area that opens up beyond Riva degli Schiavoni changes with every hour of the day, is continually becoming the sky of a totally different world. For me, Venice is a city-bound up with the fate of exceptional men. Personally, I feel comfortable within Venice, there is something in the air that encourages relaxation and repose; something unearthly breathes across the lagoon, stimulating dreams.”

Two years later I published “Gondole”, and I was very surprised to discover that no one had ever thought before me to publish a photo book about the most famous boat in the whole world, the gondola, and the reason probably is that not even Venetians themselves can know everything hidden behind the construction of this boat, as it is not only made up of wood but iron, brass, varnish, fabric too.

Professor Alvise Zorzi, in his beautiful presentation, in a passage writes:

“Only those who have experienced the sensation of rowing atop the high board on the stern on which the gondolier stands out against the skyline like the statue of Fortune of the “Dogana da mar” can understand the heady sensation it creates, the infinite range of emotions it opens up. Rowing a gondola is no easy task, however, and even experienced gondoliers can find themselves dashed into the water due to a treacherous, unexpected movement of a headstrong filly the gondola can prove to be.”

Another photographic work lasted years, always in collaboration with the publisher Biblos, covers all the provinces of the Veneto Region. In the preface of the book “Journey in the Venezie”, you can read:

“The Veneto region is a land of images; it is rich in all that beautiful images can add to the life and consciousness of a man. The imperceptible values of a cultivated plain, laid out like a huge garden, form a single whole with simple houses in which stone, color and even the atmosphere itself speak of the perfection of construction and purpose.”

You can find my Photo Tours and Photo Walks in Venice in my dedicated website: www.photowalkinvenice.com