Venice

By Jiro Taniguchi. Published by Fanfare Ponent Mon. 

Softcover, 128 pages, Colour, 2017. 

BY INVITATION ONLY. When Louis Vuitton decided to produce a series of deluxe travel books for the new century they invited only hand picked artists from around the world and placed them in settings unfamiliar to the artists to bring this vision to life. For one of the world’s most visited and romantic cities, Venice, they chose Jiro Taniguchi to glorify this magnificent city with his beautifully painted scenes. Being Taniguchi he wove a storyline around the wide open vistas, narrow canals and crowded piazzas of ‘La Serenissima’. . .

After his mother’s death aged 78, the author discovers a beautifully lacquered box which contains what appear to be old photos and hand-drawn postcards of Venice. One photo of Piazza San Marco particularly catches his eye. It is of a Japanese couple feeding a multitude of pigeons in the square dressed in what looked like 1930’s styled clothes. Who were they? What relevance did they have for his mother?

Armed with the contents of the lacquered box he travels to Venice to track down the places and events displayed in the images and to discover the identity of the young couple in the old photographs.

With very few but well chosen words and his artist’s eye for detail, Taniguchi portrays the Venice of today in a most deserving light.

Louis Vuitton made a short to introduce the book in which the Taniguchi-san walks through the city sketching and photographing scenes for the book and explains his approach to creating this project.