It has been almost four years since my first book Italian Joy was published. I have received many beautiful letters from people from many different countries who have experienced dissatisfaction with their lives and yearn to escape. Tomorrow I am leaving for Venice: I feel the same thrill and excitement as I pack my bags that I felt the very first time I arrived in Italy almost twenty years ago... I can't wait. I know it is high season in Venice and it will bursting at the seams with visitors but when the lights go down and the day trippers go home Venice will turn on her magic and I will be in love again.In all the letters I have received there is a common thread of questions, mostly about becoming a photographer. Many people ask how to switch careers and countries, my advice always is not to be in a hurry (if you can bare it)! Plan as much ahead as you can, save as much money as possible, start learning the language immediately and investigate the possibilites of working with magazines in the country of your dreams and your own country. One of the biggest challenges will be financial even though there are many, I managed to work part time in a photographic studio in Florence for a while and organised with a friend of mine to send beautiful Italian clothes back to Australia to survive. If it is photography you are interested in, get together a portfolio of the pictures you love, target magazines that you think will be interested in your work and approach them before leaving to go overseas. Start building contacts as soon as you are happy with your portfolio. One of the best ways to start getting the valuable 'tear sheets' that will give you credibility with magazines is to create your own photographic stories and pitch it to magazines. It can be about anything but study the magazines and see which one would be appropriate for the kind of photos you like to take. Remember take photos that you love and all the rest should follow...
