Camera Etrusca

08/02/2025

Female photographer at Populonia in Tuscany. She's looking out towards Elba from the enchantingly named Buca delle Fate, the fairies' cove.

12/08/2024

Passignano 2019. Seems like 20 years ago already!

04/08/2024

I would love to scale the Great Pyramid again

31/07/2024

Back in time to 1978, outside Cairo in Memphis - two Bedouin. I poked my head through the sunshine roof of a Renault 5 to grab the shot.

31/07/2023

Civita di Bagnoregio, one of the most picturesque views in Italy and only 20 minutes from Orvieto.

31/07/2023

Lonesome Pine, on the hill above Orvieto looking East towards the mountains of Abruzzo.

31/07/2023

Lake Bolsena is a mere half-hour from Orvieto. Its sunsets, especially in May and September/October, are often breathtaking. An extinct volcano, it is the world's second-largest crater lake, second only to South America's Titicaca.

31/07/2023

As Above, So Below. An elegiac view from Pitigliano looking along the valley towards Sorano in Tuscany

31/07/2023

This picture, one of Turner's most celebrated landscapes, is on permanent display at Tate Britain, London. There is an excellent near-contemporary copy in Orvieto.

Turner's painting of Orvieto. It wasn't painted in situ, there were no paints in tubes back then, colours had to be painstakingly mixed in the studio. Instead, he sketched all around Orvieto, painting this final view in his Rome studio. His sketches are visible on the Tate Gallery's website. It is curious that the cathedral which is so prominent, especially in the evening, is almost invisible in the painting. Perhaps the colours have faded?

31/07/2023

Turner's painting of Orvieto. It wasn't painted in situ, there were no paints in tubes back then, colours had to be painstakingly mixed in the studio. Instead, he sketched all around Orvieto, painting this final view in his Rome studio. His sketches are visible on the Tate Gallery's website. It is curious that the cathedral which is so prominent, especially in the evening, is almost invisible in the painting. Perhaps the colours have faded?