The Green Heart of Italy
December 12th 2025 - January 18th 2026
Umbria and its Ancient Neighbors
Opening Reception and Book Signing
Friday, December 12 from 6-8pm
Gallery Hours: Sat: 12pm-4pm Sun: 1pm-4pm
Glen Echo, MD (December 12, 2025) – Photoworks Gallery is proud to announce the December 12th opening of its latest exhibition: ‘The Green Heart of Italy,’ featuring the photography of bestselling authors Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman from their latest book, The Green Heart of Italy: Umbria and its Ancient Neighbors. A book signing will accompany the opening of the show, that runs through Jan. 18, 2026
Nestled in the center of the country, lush and verdant Umbria often is called The Green Heart of Italy and ‘Tuscany without the tourists.’ Now, in the post-Covid re-boot of Italy’s huge tourist industry, Umbria is poised to become the country’s next great travel destination.
Based on nearly a decade of teaching there, award-winning husband and wife photographer/authors Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman offer a compelling portrait of this little known region in evocative color photographs and eloquent text. In the tradition of their previous bestseller, Serenissima: Venice in Winter, The Green Heart of Italy takes readers all over the region: to glorious vistas, into artists’ studios, through private palazzi, into rustic cafes and public squares bustling with people young and old.
Artist Info
Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman are husband and wife documentary and fine art photographers, whose work has been published internationally. Goodman’s photography has hung in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Baltimore Museum; she also is an award-winning assemblage sculptor and a member of the Washington Sculptors’ Group. Van Riper’s photography is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC) as well as the Portland Gallery of Art (Portland, Maine.) He is a longtime Photoworks faculty member. His 1998 book of photography and essays, Down East Maine/A World Apart, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the silver award for photography from the Art Director’s Club of Metropolitan Washington. His current book is Recovered Memory: New York & Paris 1960-1980.
