“'All you need,' he once said as a well-known photographer was discussing the psychology behind one of his photos, 'is a little luck and enough muscle to click the shutter.' He might have added: a good an eye, a heart and a nose for news. Because all of these were evident in his work.” (Judith Fried on David Seymour)

Many do not know that the famous photograph taken in Venice which captures the apparent landing of the gondolier at the Esso petrol station on the Grand Canal was taken by David Seymour in 1950 in conjunction with a project dedicated to post-war Europe. On that occasion the photographer created an important reportage dedicated to Venice characterized by an attentive, curious and sometimes ironic look. Shots that portray moments of daily life or specific details of the lagoon city such as the omnipresent birds of the Venetian universe, the pigeons. It is to David 'Chim' Seymour that the Palazzo Grimani Museum (Regional Directorate of Veneto Museums of the Ministry of Culture) dedicates, from 6 December 2023 to 17 March 2024, the second appointment with the major protagonists of international photography of the twentieth century and who have, in their careers, chosen to interpret that unicum that is represented by Venice. The project, promoted by the Veneto Regional Museums Directorate – Museo di Palazzo Grimani in collaboration with Suazes, debuted last year with the successful monograph on Inge Morath presented with the title “Photographing from Venice onwards”, admired by over 30 thousand people.

In the case of this exhibition dedicated to David Seymour, there will be around 200 pieces on display including photographs, documents, letters and period magazines. To be represented in the 150 selected images, placed chronologically between 1936 and 1956, will be the most important reportages of the Polish photographer, such as France in 1936, the Spanish Civil War, Europe after the Second World War, the 1948 project entitled “Children of War”, commissioned by UNICEF and dedicated to war orphans, Israel and Egypt in the 1950s. Added to these are the Portraits and Personalities series, as well as the aforementioned group of photos taken in Venice. To complete the description of Chim's "world", around fifty documents, including a section with some documents dedicated to the Maleta Mexicana, the famous Mexican suitcase full of photographic treasures that were thought to be lost forever (referring to the Spanish civil war) but were instead found with emotion and surprise in Paris in 1995 and now owned by the ICP of New York.