Photographers in Dresden

When to be photographed in Dresden

The Canaletto view is a painting from 1748, and you can still stand on the exact spot it was painted from. From the Neustadt bank the Hofkirche, the Ständehaus, the Frauenkirche and the Brühl Terrace line up over the water. Because the front faces north it takes raking light from the left in the late afternoon in summer and nothing but diffuse light all day in winter — which means a December booking here looks more honest than a July one at midday. Dresden’s second subject is interiors, and they are tightly governed. The Zwinger, the Semperoper and the Residenzschloss belong to the state art collections or to the Free State, and commercial photography in them needs permission and carries a fee; the Zwinger courtyard does not, but the galleries and pavilions within it can, depending on the area. Anyone planning a wedding in Dresden settles that at the same time as the registry office rather than after it — and the registry office itself sits in a building where photography is allowed, which is not true everywhere.

September and October are the clearest months and give raking evening light across the old-town front. In May and June the Elbe meadows are green and wide enough for groups. High summer is hot and the front sits flat in the light at midday. From late November to Christmas the Striezelmarkt fills the Altmarkt — six weeks of an extra subject and, at the same time, the reason the centre is not quiet then. In January there is often fog on the Elbe, and that is the best version of the Canaletto view there is.