On Tuesday 26th January we had the annual Ray Cole Memorial lecture given by Chris Ceaser. Chris is a renown photographer with a gallery in York, who runs photo-workshops to many destinations. Our talk today was on Venice.
Chris structured the talk around Venice through the ages and he gave us fascinating detail about how Venice was founded, how it survived through the centuries by forming alliances with stronger neighbours, how it prospered through trade to become the mightiest force in the Mediterranean, and how eventually it was subsumed into Italy. Chris also showed in his talk views of Venice painted by famous painters through the years, and how he led his groups to these locations to see that the views had barely altered.
Complemented by some stunning images Chris also showed how architecture had altered through the decades of Christian and Muslim rule, and how buildings had been enlarged, taking on different styles in different stories of the building. The sunrises and sunsets were captured in lovely pastel shades, rather than the over powering light of, say, an African sky, and this showed the beauty of the buildings off.
With Chris you get great value for money and his two hour lecture was extended by half an hour to answer questions from the members. A memorable night.