The 2020 Grand Winner: Marco Buson (Italy)
Hi, this is Marco Buson, I am 32 years old and I live in a small village located in the lower Padua area, Italy. At the moment I am working in a hospital as a male nurse in the emergency room. I love and believe in my profession, especially in this very difficult historical moment of the pandemic.
Photography is my greatest passion: I think it makes you feel free to communicate and tell every emotion through a shot, even when out of focus. I love taking photos of nature, landscapes, promising sunrises, endless sunsets, and cities with all their colors, their unexpected views, and their people. Shooting makes me happy, it allows me to fix the emotions of a journey, of an instant, of an experience, all moments of life!
My other passions are music, painting, and street art, in particular Banksy.
Venice? For me, it is an endless collection of fascinating corners. This may sound trivial but every time I visit, I feel like it were the first time and I always manage to find that little bit more that makes me come back.
In my last visit which dates back to November 2019, however, Venice gave me an explosion of conflicting emotions: I found a desolate city but at the same time intimate and deep. In the end, Venice is always Venice, it touches your heart and gives you a sign of hope that I wanted to express in my photo: generations looking at each other. It’s Venice!
2020 Monthly Winners:
Rosamaria Bidoli, Marco Buson, Giuseppe Caridi, Nick & Natacha Coates, Stefano Conti, Luis Freire, Gabriele Gottani, Giuliano Gualandi, Alessandro Marchetti, Francesco Nuzzo, Ilaria Tubia Mondin, Maurizio Zanetti.
2020 Special Prizes
We assigned the following special prizes, after reviewing ALL the submitted photos (not only the monthly winners):
Special Prize #acquagranda:
Maurizio Zanetti, awarded for his photo selected as monthly winner, together with his original reportage of the 2019 exceptional tides.
Special Prize Giudecca 795 Art Gallery:
Francesco Nuzzo, for an artistic shot that is also emblematic of the pandemic time in Venice.
Special Mention #history:
Donatella Guidorizzi, with her shot “Il giorno prima che tutto accadesse”: an ordinary moment on the day before the start of the restrictions in Venice.
Please find here below the selected pictures… work-in-progress page!
ciao, this is Maurizio Zanetti. I have been taking photographs since I was 6. With cheap cameras until 18 years old, then with SLRs (first an old Zenit E, then Olympus OM1 and OM2). I soon discovered black & white (the legendary Ilford) and the darkroom. From the age of 20 to 45, I took, developed, and printed thousands of photos. Above all dance, theater, portraits. Mostly in black & white, with few concessions to color as I could not control its chemistry. When digital came along, I was very suspicious: it was practical, fast but the output didn’t convince me. Little by little, however, I discovered the extraordinary advantages of using cameras with pixels instead of rolls, I discovered the help of Photoshop and the like to correct inevitable errors.
I am not a professional but (I think) a good amateur photographer, and today, at 65, I am still taking hundreds of photos with an Olympus OM-D E-M10 III mirrorless. I still love dance, theater, and portraits. But since I got the iPhone, my life as an amateur photographer has changed. In the sense that I rarely “take my camera with me” when I am interested in taking photos of something, but I always have a camera with me (in my phone) ready for use.
And when something lights up between the eye-heart and the brain, I take out my smartphone, frame, and snap the photo. Every day, even several times a day. I have rediscovered the pleasure of looking around me, and “street photography” has become my favorite “genre”. Because, as someone said: the world is full of photos waiting to be taken…
The photo awarded by OneDayInVenezia that you see here was taken during a “reportage” on the second day of “acqua granda”, Wednesday 13th November 2019. I left Verona at dawn and had a whole day in Venice with water often over my knees. And in my hands only my good old iPhone.
This is Francesco Nuzzo, from Padua (Italy) not far from Venice – I am so lucky to be able to reach Venice in just a few minutes from home, even for one hour’s escape. This sounds like romance…
I am 60, I write software as a profession, and I still enjoy doing it. I feel my daughter Giulia is more gifted for photography than I am, so I like thinking that the engine moving her eyes comes partly from my genes.
My love for photography re-awakened three years ago, after a long sleep inside me. I have had few passions in my life, but very intense, and I think this is something good.
My profile pic was shot by Elena.
I miss Venice very much. In the last three years, I have visited almost one hundred times. I recall spending whole Sundays on the Accademia bridge, “stealing” snapshots of people in love, perfect strangers to me. But hundreds of seconds of their lives will be with me forever.
Viva Venezia!
That German little girl popped up by chance. She wanted to run in the rain in the empty square as if she knew I would have photographed her. Then, I don’t know why, of all people, she ran directly to me. She was beautiful and smiling and unexpectedly she could speak good English.
Thanks to the German girl, to Venice, and to those who appreciated that moment that will not be lost.
I am not a professional photographer, but photography has always attracted my attention.
I am fascinated by the limit of that time when you were shooting without knowing what the result of the photograph would be; now you shoot digitally, you can take thousands of photos, with a lot of technology that supports a successful outcome.
What I am looking for is the perfect moment, the moment that not everyone sees, but if it were seen it would provoke emotions.
Venice is a magical city, it is history and beauty, everywhere. As a photographer, I chase the search for the perfect moment, in a city already so easy to photograph.
Almost forgetting: my name is Gabriele Gottani – Alias Qualgiornodimaggio
Hi, this is Giuliano Gualandi, I am 57 and I live in a small town near Imola, Italy.
I am equally passionate about photography, fishing, and motorcycling (this last one, as every good guy from the Romagna region). What do these hobbies have in common, though apparently so different from each other?
Surely the desire for freedom, for traveling, the chance to escape the daily stress that in my job (I am a sales agent) is high.
My affaire with photography started more than thirty years ago, when I first attended a photography course, then deepened my passion by reading books on the subject and visiting exhibitions and photographic competitions around Italy.
I was lucky enough to be able to set up a darkroom in my house for the development of b/w for about twenty years until the advent of digital; this radical change in technology made me leave the world of photography for 5-6 years… but then – you know – true loves never die and the passion is back… in digital form. I have several reference artists, Sebastião Salgado above all.
About the One Day In Venezia photo contest: I think it’s really hard to take a bad picture in such an extraordinarily beautiful city!
Hello everyone, my name is Ilaria Tubia Mondin, I am 21 years old, I come from the province of Venice and I am doing my university studies in translation and interpretation for social security in Padua.
I approached photography a few years ago, buying my first “professional” camera before embarking on once again a trip I had the chance to do during high school.
I decided that the time had come because I have always traveled a lot, not only and of course in Italy but also in different foreign countries (presentation photo was taken in St. Petersburg), and I was tired of taking pictures always and only with my mobile phone.
From that moment on, wherever I go, the camera is always with me – even in those cases where it could be difficult to use it, but it’s a matter of principle, it must be there.
Right now I prefer to shoot portraits, I am thrilled to be able to see the various expressions of a person, and pull them out even when they think they are not suitable or photogenic.
I have the luck, however, to live in an area that offers various panoramas, from the sea to the mountains, and of course to live half an hour by train from Venice, a city that everyone dreams of visiting, and that is simply exceptional for photography.
I like to try to observe the most hidden details, and maybe take pictures that are a little different than those we are used to seeing.
Hi, my name is Luis Freire. I live in Madrid (Spain) and I am a web designer.
When I have a day off I enjoy traveling, something I always do taking the camera with me. Travel and nature photography are the modalities that I like the most.
With photography and travel, you expand your vision of the world and the cultures that share it, and with nature photography, you usually enjoy tranquility and loneliness.
In Venice, oddly enough, there are also hours and places where you can enjoy that tranquility and have the city at your disposal. Although you have to be willing to sleep little or do it late.
I visited Venice for the first time 10 years ago, during Carnival. Since then I have been in the city almost once a year. I have photographed its Carnival, its canals, campi and fondamenta, sunrises and sunsets, and its magical and quiet nights.
I hope to continue discovering much more about this fantastic city in the future.
Ciao,
this is Alessandro Marchetti. I am 61 years old and a long time ago I studied in Venice, a city with which I have maintained a deep relationship.
No other place like the Serenissima knows how to amaze you, every time with a few streets or fields to discover, but also with the incredible mutability of places seen a thousand times depending on the time of day, on the light, on the weather.
I work in a bank, and my great passions, besides photography, are traveling and the mountains.
When I can’t be around (as it often happens obviously, and this year – unfortunately – this has been almost the rule), books and classical music, two other great loves of mine, keep me company at home.
We are accepting this joint submission from Nick & Natacha Coates (48 and 12), father and daughter, as Nick Coates declared…
I actually took the photo jointly with my 12-year-old daughter Natacha. I chose the settings, she framed the shot and pressed the trigger.
We live in London surrounded by 8 cats and a lot of photos, prints, posters, paintings, musical instruments.
I’m an insight and innovation consultant and most years am traveling extensively. 2020 was not one of those years, though it did start well with this family adventure to Venice for the carnival.
There’s nowhere on Earth that’s kept me coming back (and that keeps fascinating me) as much as Venice. Each of my 7 visits has shown me a different face: misty and mysterious, hot and hazy, limpid and luminous… and we’ve loved coming with the kids, from walks on the Lido, to boat trips, to the light in backstreet churches.
My grandfather was an amazing photographer and built his own enlarger for his darkroom, my dad always took photos and gave me my first Pentax when I was not much older than Natacha, I love seeing the world through a lens, and now Natacha is a lens lover too.
(Please note: With the Author’s permission, as per the contest’s regulations, the original photo submitted by Francesco Nuzzo has been photoshopped because it includes a logo). Please see Francesco Nuzzo’s presentation on top of page.
Ciao a tutti, this is Giuseppe Caridi!
Graduated in Law, I worked first as a warehouse keeper, then at Disneyland Paris and then in a bank for 19 years, a comfort zone that I abandoned to become a Travel Designer: I will accompany my clients all over the world again when things are back to normality. See you soon, Marco Polo, the myth of my youth: we will meet on the routes of the world – but also among the rainbows of Burano, Canova’s masterpieces, or hiking on the steps of the countless bridges. You could only be a son of Venice…
The shot presenting me tells a lot about the curiosity that drives me: it was shot in Afghanistan, a country I love, about which I wrote a book and where I respectfully photographed aspects of everyday life.
The same happened in Venice: my most beloved city, in this wonderful and contradictory Italy; I had visited Venice regularly until 2001. I am impatient with mass tourism, which I experience for many months in Gallipoli, the city where I live. In the meantime, I have visited more than 150 countries in the world, got my diving licenses (I photographed the most extraordinary sea beds on the planet) and two books published on my own trips. I have also published some articles accompanied by photos of my trekking to the base camps of the highest peaks in the Himalayas.
When taking photos, I treasure my experiences (I was a football referee and Instructor of International Humanitarian Law for the International Red Cross) but also my passions: sports, literature, cinema, comics.
With this spirit, I finally returned to the lagoon. Without the crowd, I was able to wander around known corners and not in search of my personal “Corte sconta detta arcana”, which I found in the night and morning magic of San Marco but also in friendly chats with the Venetians taking their dogs for a walk; I shared with shopkeepers and residents the mood poised between regained calm and lost income; I sympathized with the genius loci like Rosalba in the film “Bread and tulips” and, when I left, it was not a Casanova-like escape but a goodbye till next spring: my lenses told me they wanted to test with a different Kelvin temperature.
Hi, this is Stefano Conti.
I am a dreamer born in Parma in 1975 when the digital revolution and the “everything just a click away” era were pure science fiction. Perhaps this is why my life has always been characterized by an innate propensity for discovery, which I expressed developing a multitude of passions and an unstoppable desire to travel and discover the world to satisfy my curiosity.
Multifaceted by nature, with a thousand interests, I am a person who in modern sociology can be described as “multipotential”.
In this sea of passions, photography has always played an important role, being a communicative medium of great impact, capable of capturing an instant and giving it to eternity. Photography, be it analog or digital, is a form of art.
Venice, which is art and wonder itself, is an idea as well as a photographic subject. Neither land nor sea, Venice is a physical and metaphysical place out of time, where the present – distilled from centuries of history and lives – looks to the future with the awareness of what is eternal.
Hello from Rosamaria Bidoli.
I am a teacher, and in my free time, I have always devoted myself to photography, especially portraits and landscapes.
I love sunrises and sunsets, the moments when the light turns on and blurs things and natural elements.
In portraits, mainly female, I am attracted by the sincere and profound gazes, in which I try to capture and express “the beauty” of faces, also those marked by time.
Born in Monfalcone, I currently live near Venice, but I often return to my land to which I am deeply attached, in particular to the karst landscape.
My passion for Venice and its lagoon is also great, and I have often taken their views up in my shots.
As an amateur photographer, I have made numerous solo shows and I have been a finalist in prestigious competitions several times.
Get inspired by the photos awarded in the previous years
- 4th edition (2019) .
- 3th edition (2018) .
- 2nd edition (2017) .
- 1st edition (2015-2016)
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