Marco Secchi

02/06/2026

Sharpness is the easiest thing to get right, and the easiest to mistake for quality.
A modern kit lens out-resolves anything the masters ever held. So why aren't we drowning in masterpieces?
New post on what actually matters.
https://marcosecchi.substack.com/p/sharpness-is-killing-your-photos

Why the obsession with tack-sharp frames is quietly making beginners worse, not better.

31/05/2026

Sunday Night.....

Late Sunday, the week still folded up. I keep thinking about sharpness. Not the kind on a chart, the kind we quietly worship. Every eyelash resolved, every edge a blade. But the pictures that stayed with me were never the sharpest. A face lost in fog. A blurred hand. They did not hand me everything,...

31/05/2026

Sunday Morning....

I keep thinking about a man I once watched walk away from me. Pale suit, straw boater, a thin cane tapping the stone. He was not in a hurry, and in a city that runs on deadlines, that was the only thing I noticed. Nobody else saw him. He just moved through the light, alone, unbothered by being alone...

30/05/2026

Twilight in Saint Mark's!

Venice, 5:03am. The square is still deciding what it wants to be. The tourists have not arrived. The cafés are asleep. The city belongs to delivery workers, photographers, insomniacs, and the occasional traveller who woke up earlier than planned. Then I noticed the sign. CHANGE. A reminder that eve...

29/05/2026

After more than two intense months of almost daily workshops and masterclasses, this chapter is finally drawing to a close.

Tomorrow is the last big push. A split workshop in Venice, sunset and night on one side, then back out again at 3am for twilight, blue hour and sunrise. The sort of schedule that sounds completely mad until you see the city waking up around you.

Looking back, it has been quite a journey.

From one-to-one mentoring sessions to small groups of four photographers. From Venice to Budapest, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Transylvania, Prague, and the landscapes of Bohemia. Thousands of kilometres, countless conversations, early mornings, late nights, and many memorable photographs.

Every location has left something behind, but I have to admit that lovely Istria still has a special place in my heart.

For the first time in months, my calendar is beginning to open up. Apart from a couple of workshops, I will not be running any major masterclasses until mid to late September.

That means it is time to return to some of the projects I have neglected.

More writing. More articles on Substack. More work on The Red Pen. A couple of exhibitions. New podcast episodes. I am also keen to experiment with live online sessions and a few other ideas that have been quietly waiting in the background while I have been on the road.

If you would like to follow that journey, now is probably a good time to join me on Substack at marcosecchi.substack.com .

And for those I have met along the way this season, thank you. It has been a privilege to spend time photographing, teaching, learning and exploring together.

As for the workshops, we will do it all again in September.

And judging by what is already in the diary, the next season may be even crazier.

28/05/2026

There is a scene I keep watching repeat itself in my workshops.
A photographer sees a great moment. Lifts the camera. Then looks down at the dials. Shutter. ISO. Aperture. Back to the viewfinder. Not quite right. Back to the dials.
And the moment is gone.
Two weeks ago it happened right in front of the Danieli here in Venice. Golden hour, three gondoliers, perfect light. Lost to a three-variable equation.
Full manual mode has become photography's badge of seriousness. But in real-world, dynamic shooting it is often the thing standing between you and your best work.
New piece on the blog today. Free to read, no subscription needed for the first part.
👉

The camera setting that makes you feel like a photographer while making you a worse one

28/05/2026

Chioggia today, during the street masterclass.

One of the things I always tell people is this: good street photography is often about recognising visual absurdity before everyone else walks past it.
A narrow Venetian fishing town suddenly draped in enormous

Brazilian flags, tourists moving underneath them like it is the most ordinary thing in the world, colour everywhere, heat bouncing off the stones.

Street photography is rarely about hunting ‘perfect moments’. It is about noticing when reality briefly becomes stranger, louder, or more cinematic than fiction.📷

27/05/2026

Most photography education starts with settings. Aperture, shutter speed, ISO.

Ansel Adams started somewhere else entirely.

He started with the question: what do I want this photograph to look like before I shoot it?

That thinking has a name.

It is called pre-visualization.

And the system he built around it still holds up 80 years later.

First post in a 4-part series is live now.

Post 1 of 4 — The Zone System Series

25/05/2026

“Through the Lens" just entered the Top 75 Art publications on Substack.

Interesting, because this newsletter started as a fairly niche space focused on photography, visual storytelling, and the business side of the craft.

Proof that serious photography writing still has an audience in a world drowning in gear reviews and recycled tips.

Thank you to everyone reading, sharing, arguing, and supporting the work.

Marco

35 years of photography from London to Edinburgh, Venice... Getty Images pro Marco Secchi shares the craft of the shot, the philosophy of seeing, and the art of the European flâneur. Two articles a week: Tuesday’s reflection and Thursday’s masterclass. Click to read Through the Lens 📷, by Ma...