“Photography’s first major convocation.” “The largest cultural photographic gathering in the history of the medium.” “Venezia ’79 La Fotografia” : 4,000 photographs by 500 photographers, 26 exhibitions, 45 master workshops, 14 lectures and two symposia. By the fifth day, exhausted, you asked yourself why you were not more thankful. The next day there was still Sam Wagstaff’s collection and the Stieglitz show to see. But seeing became strabismal in the face of 4,000 photographs, especially when so many were worth looking at. You shuddered at the thought that half the shows had been eliminated,