by Steve Gosling
Fine Art Photographer
Over the next 18 months, I’ll be sharing a series of blog posts for SIGMA exploring my thoughts and views on photography – what drives me, what inspires me, and how I approach image-making. This is the second in the series about a recent trip I made to Venice with a small selection of Sigma I series lenses.
I first visited Venice 21 years ago – for just one day in August. It was horrendous – claustrophobically hot, busy with no freedom to follow my nose to explore, just being carried along by the crowd. So, you might be surprised to hear that I have been back over a dozen times. For I fell in love with the place – its faded glory & the romantic beauty of its old grand buildings, alleyways and canals. The magical sense of splendour and history continue to lure me back to photograph the city.
What I have photographed over the years has changed. Initially attracted to the obvious – iconic locations like the Grand Canal, St. Marks Square, the Rialto Bridge and Santa Maria della Salute – I am now interested in a more personal response. One that tries to get at what’s under the surface – the mystery of the hidden Venice. In his book, “The City of Haunting Dreams”, Sir Simon Marsden wrote:
“It is a city of many contradictions – something grand but faded, magical yet ghostly, beautiful but with a dark, sinister undercurrent running through its canals and a pervasive sense that a second spectral city exists beneath the façade of what you see”.
The more I visited and researched Venice and its history the more convinced I became that it was this complexity and the ambiguities that I wanted to explore. So that has been my consistent theme for the last few years, almost exclusively photographing in B&W, taking ‘straight’ shots, blending multiple exposures and deliberately defocusing lenses to enhance the sense of mystery and intrigue.
However, my most recent trip there heralded a slightly different approach. In part because I was there running a private workshop with three clients from the USA, so my photography was very much secondary to helping, and advising them. I had to be quick & flexible, grabbing shots as & when I could rather than adopting the more methodical & purposeful way of working that I normally employ.
I also fancied a fresh approach, to try and see Venice through different eyes but at the same time keeping my ongoing theme in mind. Revisiting a location several times gives insights to a place that a one-off visit doesn’t allow for but can also mean you end up repeating yourself – taking variations of the same image. To try and prevent this I imposed on myself the challenge of shooting in colour. I didn’t totally forbid myself the option of shooting B&W (I’m not that mad!) but it wasn’t my primary interest.
I took my two Leica SL3s and the thought of giving them some exercise in my favourite city had an obvious appeal. I matched them with three Sigma I series lenses – the 17mm F4 DG DN | C, a 24mm F2 DG DN | C and the 50mm F2 DG DN | C. Chosen because I thought the small size, light weight and the relatively wide apertures of the two longer focal lengths would give me the freedom, flexibility and ability to work quickly that I needed.
How did it work out? In terms of the process, it was occasionally frustrating that I couldn’t linger, to wait for all the elements in a scene to come together. But working differently encouraged me to see differently and I came back with a more diverse set of images than I might otherwise have done. I even shot some photographs of people (unusual for me because I generally say if it breathes, I don’t photograph it!).
I very much enjoyed using the Leica SL3s – combining them with the Sigma I series lenses produced images of excellent technical quality (whether the aesthetic aspects match up or not I’ll leave you to decide). I enjoy using prime lenses (particularly for travel where size and weight are important considerations). True, in making these factors a priority, I lose the flexibility of using zooms but then that’s what we were born with feet for (and having 61 megapixels to crop into also helps!).
I am a bit of a traditionalist and not a great lover of manoeuvring around complex menu systems so the SL3s suit my way of working. The fact that the camera can be set up so that the controls can be adapted to each individual user’s preferences is a real bonus.
I also appreciated the simplicity of the I series lenses with the option of controlling apertures manually or on auto via the camera and a switch on the lens to change from auto to manual focus. The all-metal construction (including the lens hoods) gives them a solidity that inspires confidence whilst remaining light & portable enough to be carried around a city like Venice all day. And the retro styling is the icing on the cake, giving them an aesthetic appeal to an old school photographer like me. But, most importantly, the optical quality is superb and that’s the ultimate test of any lens.
ABOUT
STEVE GOSLING
Fine Art Photographer
Steve, a passionate photographer since childhood, finds joy in black & white landscape and travel photography but refuses to be confined to any single genre. Constantly challenging himself, he brings his unique vision to diverse subjects, always striving to grow as an artist. His work has been published globally in books, magazines, and exhibitions, earning numerous awards. However, his greatest pride comes from 28 years of inspiring and mentoring photographers worldwide through his writing and workshops.
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