“Photography” is not about “Photography”, it’s about you!

I’m Marc De Tollenaere, a photographer based in Venice, Italy, and I’m proud to be part of the Leica Akademie Italy, where I’ve been teaching since 2014.

My latest book, “One, No One and Fifty Thousand – Inside Venetians’ Houses”, is a ten-year project about the last inhabitants of Venice, portrayed in their homes. It sold out in just a few weeks and has now become a collector’s item.

Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside legendary photographers such as Steve McCurry and David Alan Harvey. For more than a decade, I have also been a Leica Akademie instructor and a Certified Leica Photographer.

In 2005, I was recognized as a distinguished photographer at the Day’s Japan World Photojournalistic Award for my reportage “Children of the City of Joy”, taken in Kolkata, India. In 2008, I received the same recognition at the Italian Professional Award for my work on the “Treviso Christian Centre.”

My work has been exhibited in Photokina Köln (2008), Photoshow Rome (2010), Bassano Fotografia (2011) alongside Douglas Kirkland, and at the Leica Galerie in Milan (2015).

Since 2010, I’ve been organizing and leading photographic workshops across countries including India, Nepal, Burma, Vietnam, Iceland, Turkey, and Cambodia.

In 2015, my photos were selected for the “28mm Street” exhibition at the Leica Galerie in Milan, alongside works by Elliott Erwitt, William Klein and Joel Meyerowitz.

In 2020, my images were featured in the book “Inspiration Leica Akademie” and exhibited at the Leica headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, I photographed a deserted Venice and began a collaboration with French national television TF1, which continued into 2021 and 2022 with various reports — covering topics such as the impact of large cruise ships, the Historical Regatta, and the effects of climate change on the lagoon.

In April 2021, the Italian TV program Geo on Rai3 dedicated a feature to my work, titled “The Last Venetians”, where I was filmed photographing people in their homes. The documentary was later translated and broadcast on French and German television as well.

In 2022, I published with Biblos Edizioni the book “One, No One and Fifty Thousand – Inside Venetians’ Houses”, a project born from my desire to tell the story of Venice through the faces and spaces of those who still truly live it.