Bellissima Venice

Venice, with her winding canals and magnificent palaces, has enchanted artists, poets, aristocrats, and visitors for centuries. Turn the pages of this beautifully produced collection of photographs, and it's easy to see why. For the past two hundred years, Venice has remained practically unchanged, a testament to the glorious, singular design of La Serenissima. In stunning full-color photographs, Bellissima Venice presents the city from numerous dramatic perspectives: From panoramic rooftops, unhurried gondolas, and columned palace galleries. From the Piazza San Marco to San Giorgio Maggiore, from the Rialto Bridge to the Bridge of Sighs, from the Grand Canal to snaking water alleyways, Michel Setboun's exquisite images distill the essence of Venice's serenely seductive beauty.

Venice, with her winding canals and magnificent palaces, has enchanted artists, poets, aristocrats, and visitors for centuries. Turn the pages of this beautifully produced collection of photographs, and it's easy to see why. For the past two hundred years, Venice has remained practically unchanged, a testament to the glorious, singular design of La Serenissima. In stunning full-color photographs, Bellissima Venice presents the city from numerous dramatic perspectives: From panoramic rooftops, unhurried gondolas, and columned palace galleries. From the Piazza San Marco to San Giorgio Maggiore, from the Rialto Bridge to the Bridge of Sighs, from the Grand Canal to snaking water alleyways, Michel Setboun's exquisite images distill the essence of Venice's serenely seductive beauty.

Publishers Weekly

A play of light infuses many of Setboun's photographs of "beautiful" Venice: here a dappled yellow-green canal, there a fireworks display of moonlight off the water. In his introduction, Setboun (New York Vertigo ) describes Venice's photographer-friendly qualities: "In winter, for example, at a certain moment the sun will penetrate to the depths of her alleys and canals, illuminating them for an instant before abandoning them back to the shadows." Text is otherwise brief, with readers expected to be familiar with Venice's history and geography. Perhaps half the 120 color photographs (most taking up a full page or more) are picture postcards, but a few reveal a more complicated Venice- cranes over historic rooftops, a reflection off of the vaporetto (water taxi) windows, the tile rooftops of the old town in the foreground set against an enormous cruise ship in the background. Originally published in French, the book serves as a coffee-table souvenir for recent visitors or temptation for those who have yet to fall in love with this fantastical place. The oversize, slipcased book's, horizontal orientation complements long photographic vistas across the ever-changing light and water of Venice. (Mar.)

Michel Setboun has worked as a photographer since 1978 and traveled around the world as a reporter. His work has been published in numerous international journals such as the New York Times, Geo, Life, Paris Match, Stern, and Le Figaro.