Julian Lennon

Perhaps it is because he belongs to a maritime city, Liverpool — where Julian Lennon was born — that his black-and-white lagoon-inspired polyptych vibrates with an instinctive harmony with Venice. The photographer juxtaposes these shots, by contrast, with a flaming sky and blue, smoky mountain crests. He does so at Galleria Ravagnan, the oldest gallery in Venice, recognizing the spirit that has always distinguished it: being contemporary by vocation. By entering the roster of artists it represents, Lennon brings news from the latest frontier of photography, an art form with over a century of history, currently experiencing a flourishing season of creativity and rediscovery.

St. Mark’s Square and the Island of San Giorgio, façades along the Grand Canal, a quintessential couple — the Bridge of Sighs with a gondola — and this daring city, all the more audacious when framed from above, as envisioned by the cartographer Jacopo de’ Barbari three and a half centuries before photography’s invention. The vertiginous beauty of a human space and “the infinite, primal beauty of Planet Earth,” never ceases to fascinate him, as Lennon writes.

The Venetian shots of "Venice" in black and white, "Blaze" with a red cloud over the sea, and the blue clouds entangled among the peaks in "Midnight Smoke" are now on display at Galleria Ravagnan in Dorsoduro. They were previously exhibited from August to November at San Giorgio in Whispers/Sussurri – Julian Lennon, A Retrospective at Fondazione Cini, within Le Stanze della Fotografia.

If photographs were songs, they would be whispered because they capture a moment, an emotion, and “that emotion”, Lennon writes, “although fleeting, is there, once again within reach. Memories of people and moments, of what we have loved and lost. Art is undoubtedly a subjective matter, but photography creates a direct connection with the soul. No interference, no intermediaries. You don’t have to overthink. You see what you see. And that’s what keeps me going, what keeps me alive.” It is “the world of Truth and Illusion.”

Venice is the mirrored image of that world, doubled in the reflection of the inverted square. Lennon caught it on a day of high water. Like our lives, like memories, the city sways, moored to the mainland, uncertain, fearing the open sea. A fleeting, improbable wonder, on the verge of sinking. A timeless Atlantis.

“I am truly honoured to see a selection of images from my Whispers exhibition with Le Stanze della Fotografia, find a new home at the esteemed Ravagnan Gallery, one of the earliest established galleries in Venice. It’s incredibly meaningful to have these works continue to live on in such a historic and culturally significant space. Venice has always been a city that inspires reflection and creativity, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to continue sharing my vision here.” - Julian Lennon