I went to Venice in 1973 for the first time. Fascinating, yet deeply human, Venice struck me. Thus, I started taking photographs, and nowadays they amount 25,000. I shot many photographs by night in Venice, many others from boat in small canals, and also at the bottom of the lagoon, where nobody ever goes, not even Venetians.

Besides, I often had to go to and fro over the French countryside, and I felt being in the heart of life and nature. And now there are 40,000 photographs more.

I took all these photographs myself; and made all the works with Eleonora's technical help : development, scan, retouch, conception and realization of the Cdroms... In spite of the proposals of whole world's publishers, I have never had books published, for I have wanted to realize everything to my liking. So, I spent five years to repair myself old 1930 forgotten cameras, Contax Zeiss, just because of their marvellous lenses. All the same, I needed to know the lies of gallic or roman ancient roads, etymology of place names, sites of prehistory, sea depths, geological features... not owing to some erudition enthusiasm, but in order to keep close to human being.

These photographs represent 30 years of my life. They are just some kind of souvenirs taken to be shown to friends, to make them know how life was in those days.

World has rather changed since then; Venice, its lagoon, and the French countryside are no more those I had known. I think it is worth saving the memory of such a past.