As those of you who follow ;Libby on Facebook know, she's gone back to college this year, to study for a BA in Photography. One of her first assignments is on Opulence and Austerity, so we've had lots of discussions recently on how both terms can be defined. Austerity is relatively straightforward, but opulence seems a bit harder to pin down. For example, where does opulence end and decadence begin? What's the difference between an opulent display and an ostentatious one? Does the term opulence still have any cultural relevance or is it simply a description of a particular period of western history?

Anyway, in and among these various discussions I remembered a shot I'd taken during our Venice Carnival Photo Tour back in 2012: a shop window, that to me at least, seems to portray opulence to a tee.

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9.33am on 15/2/12 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 23mm f/11.0 1/60 aperture priority +0.7 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor