Venezia Oscura by Gerhard Ullmann

The Globalist PhotoGallery

Venezia Oscura

by Gerhard Ullmann
Published by
Edition Axel Menges.
95 pp. — approx. 90 color photographs, Dimensions (in inches): 0.56 x 12.18 x 11.40,
$59.00

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Venezia Oscura

Gerhard Ullmann investigates the mystery of Venice in a number of impressive photographs. From a ghostlike Venice in the snow to the reflection of the city in the canals' murky water, his images portray a city that is shrouded in obscurity.

As Mr. Ullmann's photography makes clear, half of Venice is masked. It is plastered with posters — or covered with paintings. One wonders if there is something about Venice that we are not meant to see. Some of Mr. Ullmann's pictures hide the surface of Venice so effectively, you do not know whether you are seeing reality — or just the pictures overlapping it.

Just like an old Venetian half-mask, where the face shows through at some point, it becomes evident that behind all of the decorations, the city is decaying. And yet, no other city flaunts its decline as much as Venice.

Perhaps there is something to be said for the papering over of Venice — and the covering up of the city's decay. As Mr. Ullmann's photographs illustrate so effectively, Venice is a city that is hidden behind a shroud of obscurity. And yet, beneath all the mystery, these photographs lead us to believe that there is something very beautiful hidden there.

About Gerhard Ullmann

Gerhard Ullmann was born in Teplitz (in what is now the Czech Republic) in 1935. He has lived in Berlin since 1956 — where he studied architecture and painting at the Hochschule der Künste.

Mr. Ullmann then worked as an architecture and art critic — as well as a photographer. His work includes books on Sanssouci and derelict industrial sites.

He has also acquired a reputation around the world with his photographic exhibitions on Berlin and Venice, on masks and carnivals.

Sculpture at the entrance to the Giardini Publici.