Photo of the Week: Cat Among the Pigeons

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is one that I have dug out of my archive from possibly the most photographed city of all time…Venice, Italy.

I made the obligatory photographers/travellers pilgrimage to this city for a short weekend break and was overcome, mostly by the hordes of visitors there at the same time as me. Luckily, I had a good friend who was a local, who was able to steer me away from some of the more heavily visited areas.

When you visit a place like Venice, which is photographed constantly, it is sometimes hard to create something that is perceived as unique or different. You try to avoid visual cliches that have been reproduced by hundreds of other photographers before you.

Whilst I was happy with a lot of my photos, my favourite photo actually came from the most visited part of the city, St Mark’s Square. As anyone who has visited the square will know, it is normally inhabited by large numbers of pigeons all vying for the food which tourists happily feed them. This one girl donned in a cat’s mask, patiently waited in what almost seemed like a trap for the unsuspecting avian residents. Did she catch any? I can’t remember but it was fun to watch as she created this visual idiom before me.