36 colour prints from Kodak Portra 160 VC 135 colour negative film, printed on Kodak Ultra Endura glossy, naturally faded in direct sunlight, 25.4 x 30.5 (10 x 12 in).

Who hasn’t wished at times to have an entire city to themselves? During the Covid emergency, Venice fulfilled that solipsistic fantasy more completely than any other city in the world. When the city went into lockdown on 8 March 2020, the city’s public spaces, services, amenities, and shops were empty or closed, its few residents were confined to their homes while the crowds of tourists, commuters, students, and part-time residents stayed away.

On those early sunny spring days, Venice appeared eerily pristine—its streets and squares deserted, its canals strikingly clear, and even the air itself felt cleaner. Yet, when life returned to normal and the city reopened for business, it was easy to forget that experience—and even easier to overlook that, for many, things had only worsened.

The following year, on 10 August 2022, the population counter in the Farmacia Morelli showed that the number of residents in the historic centre had fallen below 50,000 for the first time since the 11th century.

As overtourism and depopulation continue to drain life from Venice, so are these photographs gradually disappearing, not too far away from the traces of time they had captured.