Cyanotype Workshop Florence: Photography Walk and Handmade Print

You start on the streets of Florence with Leo and a camera. By the end of the session, you walk out with a handmade blue photograph of the city, printed using a technique invented in the 1840s.

This photography workshop Florence combines two things that rarely happen in the same afternoon: a guided photo walk through the city with a professional photographer, and a hands-on printing session in a working craft studio. Leo leads you through both. He lends you the camera, explains what to look for, and guides you through every step of the process from shooting to print.

The cyanotype is one of the oldest photographic printing techniques. It requires no darkroom, only light-sensitive emulsion, a UV lamp, and water. The result is a photograph with the characteristic deep blue tone that made cyanotype iconic in the 19th century and still distinctive today. As a cyanotype printing Florence experience, it goes well beyond a standard photography class: the image you print is a photograph you took yourself, in a city you walked that same day.

Leo grew up in Florence, spent 30 years in Milan as a documentary photographer and educator, and returned in 2018 to open Fatacadabra with his wife, an illustrator. Analogue photography Florence visitors experience here is not a novelty act. Leo works with these techniques because he believes in slowing down, looking carefully, and making something real. After 25 years of teaching, he knows how to make a complex process feel manageable and satisfying.

If you are looking for unique things to do in Florence beyond the galleries and guided tours, this hands-on workshop Florence delivers both the city and a finished object to take home.