Introductions/Introducciones Gina Esposito

We introduce you to Gina Esposito

Mexico 2008

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ginaesposito

www.ginaespo.blogspot.com

What photography projects are you working on now?

I don’t necessarily consider myself seeking a professional career in photography, so I sort of take photographs to inspire me in my other artistic endeavors and life.  I am a very visual person and always have a lot going on in my brain, so photography for me is a remembrance of something my eyes see as beautiful.  My boyfriend asks me a lot “why I took that photograph”, and I always say “you don’t understand.  The way I was feeling on the inside when I saw that, is indescribable and I needed to capture it to remember it forever”.  Maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit in this response – I do find myself seeking out shots and setting them up/angling them in the way I feel they should be projected in the photograph, but most of the time it is about the feeling that is going on inside.  As for projects, I am working on my clothing collection, just opened up an etsy shop to sell some photographs (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ginaesposito) and also have a blog to keep my inspirations always available (www.ginaespo.blogspot.com) – there you’ll see some building and garden projects I’ve taken up this spring as well.  I’ve also done a few photography pieces for friends shops.

You are a fashion designer, how do you work in photography into your career, or do you keep that separate?

I definitely do not keep the two separate!   My surroundings are constantly inspiring me and I honestly get the anxiety shakes if I don’t have my camera with me because there is always something catching my eye.  My eyes are peeled at all times looking for colors, textures, patterns, surfaces, movements; and like I said in the previous response: how I’m feeling on the inside about the situation or imagery I am in.  So basically they go hand-in-hand for me.

How do you keep yourself from getting bored with your artwork, or your subject matter?

Well!  Our world is ever changing, isn’t it!  Can one really get bored with their artwork or subject matter?

Were you raised around the arts?

Yes.  My grandfather is an architect and artist and my Aunt Diana is an artist; my entire family and the people we surround ourselves with are always patrons of the arts.  I grew up on Long Island only 20 miles from New York City, so our family would go into the city almost every weekend and go to different museums, galleries, shows (our family loves off-off broadway shows), stores etc. and just explore explore explore.  Pushing culture was huge for our family.  My grandparents would always make my cousin and I sketchbooks made up of recycled paper stapled to a thick piece of recycled cardboard for every museum visit – and I’m talking since we were able to hold a pencil, yes they would make us sketchpads since we were 2.  I wonder what happened to those sketchbooks!  My Aunt Diana worked at the Brooklyn Museum, so my cousin and I would go to her classes pretty frequently and participate with the class even if the kids were much older than us.  I am so grateful for this upbringing, it was truly wonderful and prepared me for my future in the arts.  My family continues to inspire me on a never ending basis.  My grandfather is now 80 and is still working as an architect, sculpts out of wood and copper and continues to fill up a sketchbook in an unbelievable amount of time.  They are people that are inspired and inspiring to no end.  My Aunt Diana was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in the 1980′s, went back to school to become a librarian and even though her illness has challenged her artistically, she has recently taken up drawing again and goes to the beach every day at sunset to draw in her sketchbook.  So yes, art has been instilled in my life since way before I was born