'The first time I visited Venice, I was surprisingly unimpressed. Indeed, the city actually disappointed me. How could this stinking, poorly maintained, sweaty city heaving with tourists be so revered?

 

But over the years, Venice would grow on me like a classic pop song: I didn't like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ either, when I heard it for the first time. Even less so ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. They needed time. I needed time. Venice needed time. But Venice is patient.

 

When I wander through the city now, I smell the scent of the sea and experience the beauty of flaking plaster. I use deodorant and blur out the tourists by using long exposures. Venice has become a place to dream, to escape the daily grind and to imagine myself in another world'.