Venice in winter is a different world entirely.
The crowds disappear. Fog settles over the canals. Light shifts endlessly across stone and water. The city becomes quieter, stranger, more dreamlike — suspended somewhere between memory and reality.
Join Jamie Beck and Todd Ritondaro for an intimate film photography retreat in Venice during its most evocative season — an invitation to slow down, heighten your senses, and experience the liminal beauty of the city through atmosphere, observation, and light.
Venice has always existed between worlds. Between land and water. Past and present. Reflection and illusion. In winter, that feeling becomes even more palpable. The ever-changing light moving through fog and narrow passageways. Water reflecting fragments of architecture and sky. The silence of early mornings. The sensation that the city itself is constantly dissolving and reappearing.
Together, we’ll explore Venice through the timeless medium of film photography, focusing on mood, narrative, texture, and personal vision. Wandering narrow alleys, photographing mist rising over the lagoon, quiet cafés, hidden courtyards, reflections, winter light, and the poetry found in fleeting moments.
Our days will unfold slowly and intentionally. Early morning walks through the city before it wakes. Long afternoons devoted to lectures, editing, conversation, and creative exercises. Evenings gathered over candlelit dinners, wine, and intimate discussions about photography, cinema, storytelling, and the artistic process.
Throughout the workshop, Jamie and Todd will share their distinct approaches to image-making — offering hands-on guidance, personal feedback, and thoughtfully designed exercises intended to deepen your relationship with light, atmosphere, composition, and visual storytelling on film.
This experience is designed not only to strengthen your technical understanding of film photography, but to help you develop greater trust in your own eye and way of seeing.
More than a workshop, this is an immersion into a slower and more poetic rhythm of life and creativity. An opportunity to create work rooted in presence, emotion, and atmosphere while experiencing Venice at its most intimate and cinematic.
This is a rare opportunity to spend meaningful time with Jamie and Todd in a small group setting, sharing conversation, inspiration, and creative practice far from the distractions of everyday life.
All guests will also receive an exclusive fine art photography print created by Jamie during the retreat, released as a limited edition exclusively for participants.
7 Nights/8 Days
Throughout our week of film, light, and water, we’ll move through Venice slowly and intentionally, exploring the city’s dreamlike atmosphere through photography, conversation, shared meals, and creative practice. Experiences throughout the week will include:
• Early morning photographic walks through quiet Venetian streets and along the lagoon, exploring the city before it fully wakes.
• Guided film photography sessions centered on atmosphere, natural light, composition, mood, and visual storytelling, alongside practical instruction on the technical foundations of shooting film, including exposure, metering, film stock selection, and developing greater confidence working with light.
• An intimate visit to the private studio and darkroom of a renowned Venetian fine art photographer, offering insight into a lifelong photographic practice rooted in craft, poetry, and the hand printed image.
• Explorations of hidden neighborhoods, narrow passageways, cafés, canals, and lesser-known corners of Venice, allowing space for observation, spontaneity, and discovery.
• A visit to study works by Tintoretto, exploring his dramatic use of composition, gesture, light, and narrative as inspiration for photographic storytelling and portraiture.
• A portraiture session using natural light and costumed models, focused on narrative, gesture, atmosphere, and Jamie’s approach to creating cinematic imagery through styling, posing, and storytelling.
• A day at the historic Rialto Market selecting seasonal ingredients before gathering to prepare, style, photograph, and share a long Venetian lunch together.
• Discussions and creative exercises centered on developing more personal bodies of work — learning to think beyond individual images and begin shaping photographs into cohesive projects, visual narratives, and long-form photographic essays.
• Thoughtfully designed assignments intended to deepen your sensitivity to light, rhythm, texture, color, and emotional resonance within an image.
• Group critiques, editing sessions, and personal feedback designed to help refine your visual language and strengthen trust in your own eye.
• Conversations on photography, cinema, books, creative process, and sustaining an artistic life over long periods of time.
• Explorations of Venice by water, drifting through quiet canals and across the lagoon by vaporetto and gondola, experiencing the city from its most timeless, dreamlike, and cinematic perspective.
• Evenings shared over candlelit dinners, wine, and intimate conversation as the city settles into its nocturnal rhythm.
• Plenty of unstructured time for wandering, photographing, journaling, or simply allowing serendipity and the city itself to guide your experience.