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Matinee: Bas de Graaf
23 May 2015
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the eighty-sixth in our series of Saturday matinees today: Street photography Venice by Bas de Graaf.
De Graaf made this three-minute, black-and-white slide show of Venetian street photography in 2011. We've been keeping under our hat for a while now, hoping to see more of de Graaf's work. Every other Friday or so, we'd take a look at it again, continue our search for more de Graaf, smile and tuck it away.
It's greatly amusing.
- The crowd on the Rialto followed by their laundry hanging over the street
- The waiter bounding out of the shadows of the cafe in one direction while a pidgeon hops out in the other
- The gondolas sweeping up to Piazza San Marco as the tide comes in
The composition is no accident, we think. De Graaf is a graphic artist.
A self-taught photographer, he resides in Amsterdam where he renewed his interest in photography in 2010.
You can (at last) see more of his work, including some in color. He's also on Instagram, Facebook and a few other Web sites.
But it's these Venetian shots we love.
- The crowd lined up in the rain with umbrellas over their heads, standing on platforms to keep their shoes dry as Piazza San Marco floods
- The Bar Americano serving Ice Cream in the land of gelato
- The proprietor standing in front of his shop, leaning on a table of small frames below a window display of masks
- Kids in the street playing soccer followed by young adults leaning casually against the Rialto's balustrade
- Everywhere the rain but the laundry hung to dry in the sun
As he says in a second video, "Every photo tells a story. Stories should be shared." And we are at last happy to share his.