Tag: photography

creativity

JoyProject podcast: The Joy of Photography with Amy Selwyn

Christa Avampato
The Joy of Photography with Amy Selwyn

Smartphones have turned all of us into photographers. We take pictures of our friends and family, our food, pets, art, selfies, sunsets, gorgeous vistas. If we can see it, we’re taking photos of it. Smartphones changed the way we see and capture our world and experiences. 

Less than a year before the pandemic started, photographer Amy Selwyn gave herself a gift that completely and unexpectedly changed nearly every aspect of her life. A trip to Cuba not only transformed her career, but it gave her a totally new way of seeing the world and her place in it.

At the end of the podcast, I share something that brought me joy this week related to the episode. As she adjusts her life to make room for making more art, she’s downsizing her home. That inspired me to re-arrange my own home and declutter my life. Apartment Therapy is an Instagram account and website that offers fantastic ideas on how to organize and decorate a small space for it’s beautiful and functional.

Topics discussed in this episode:
– How Amy got interested in photography
– Traveling to Cuba and falling in love with street photography
– The joy of being a beginner
– Discovering and living out your passions at any age
– Mental health and the artist mindset

Links to resources:
– Amy on Instagram – @amyselwynphotographer
– Amy on Twitter – @amyselwyn
– Amy’s website – amyselwyn.photography
– Christa on Twitter – @christanyc
– Christa on Instagram – @christarosenyc
– Christa on Facebook – @AuthorChrista 
– Christa on Medium – @christaavampato
– Christa on TikTok – @christanyc
– Christa’s website – ChristaAvampato.com
– Apartment Therapy – www.apartmenttherapy.com

About Amy:
Amy Selwyn is a writer and fine arts photographer, and an utterly devoted dog mom to a sassy and adorable French Bulldog. 

Amy spent over 35 years working for and with news organizations around the world, including the BBC, The New York Times, the European Broadcasting Union,  and The Associated Press. Stories and storytelling are a lifelong passion. 

Amy is currently in a 3-year MFA program at Maine Media in Rockport, Maine, studying photography. This month, Amy will have one of her works in a juried show at the South East Center For Photography in Greenville, South Carolina. 

Originally from Hartford, CT, Amy and her beloved pup are currently based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

creativity

Research is a writer’s best friend

Christa Avampato
Art by CJ Bown of the Arcade in Central Park that hangs in my apartment

I’m under contract to write the third novel in my Emerson Page trilogy. I’ve struggled to find my footing with this one. I’ve written out over half a dozen concepts and nothing felt genuine. It all felt like a forced narrative. This has been going on for months.

I had a hunch that the book should begin in the Arcade near Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain. I wasn’t sure how or why, but that space has called to me for years. I have a huge photograph of it hanging in my apartment, and it’s one of my favorite pieces of art. For months I’ve been looking for interesting aspects of the arcade and the fountain, hoping to find some link to Emerson’s story. Nothing.

So I went back to the primary source—Greensward, the original plan for Central Park written by Olmsted and Vaux in 1858. Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, along with the Arcade, are considered the heart of the Park. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Nature had an enormous influence on the design of Central Park. Both Olmsted and Vaux admired him. My protagonist, Emerson Page, is named after Emerson.

From there, I did more research on Emerson, Olmsted, and Vaux and found a number of links to the muses of Greek mythology who figure prominently in Emerson Page’s story. All the pieces I’d been struggling to find fell into place one by one and before I knew it, my outline of the third book was humming after so many false starts.

If you find yourself stuck in your writing, I highly encourage a detour into research and into primary sources. The answers to our present challenges often have roots in the past. Our job as writers is to uncover them and bring them into the light.

creativity

A Year of Yes: Feeling stuck in your writing? Go outside.

Christa Avampato

Despite the cold, my senior dog, Phineas, took me on a 2-hour hike through the North Woods of Central Park yesterday. The late afternoon light was just perfect. Time in nature is like a massage for the brain, heart, and spirit. It prompts my creativity. The movement jogs my imagination, restores my resolve to do work that builds a better world. If you need to be restored, get outside. Your restlessness has a purpose. It is meant to move you. Don’t fight it. Go with it. 

creativity

A Year of Yes: Iceland in 3 weeks

Christa Avampato

I’ll land in Iceland 3 weeks from today! My mom told me my Grampy, Alfonso Francis Lupinacci, dreamed of going there. He read all he could about it in National Geographic magazines. I didn’t know that when I booked this trip. He died on my 6th birthday without ever seeing Iceland so I’m taking these pictures of us with me to show him around. I hope that somewhere along that path I feel his presence and that we get a chance to share a moment, standing in awe of that beautiful landscape together, after all these years. And I hope I can be the tour guide he always wanted to have.

creativity

In the pause: Back cover art for my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters

Christa Avampato

I’ve been hard at work with the artist designing the cover of my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters. Here’s our work-in-progress for the back cover. What do you think? Sign up for giveaways, exclusive content, and updates at https://goo.gl/forms/ZsMC4d1kN9jKpZhD3. (Please pardon the image watermark as we’re still locking down the design!)

back cover

creativity

Wonder: The urban farm on the roof of Union Market

Christa Avampato

Yesterday I had a great time getting a tour of the hydroponic garden on top of Union Market. The garden is owned, run, and used by the restaurant Bidwell. It inspired me to think about how I might do something like this once I buy my own apartment. It’s possible to farm just about anywhere now thanks to technology. The Breaking Bread podcast might soon be recording surrounded by the food that’s about to be served.

Here are some pictures from the roof garden at Union Market!

creativity

Wonder: The We Love You Project

Christa Avampato

13680939_1715062572089654_4204151035333704265_nWe can all do extraordinary things, especially during times of adversity and difficulty. To put it bluntly, the black community in America is under siege, and they have been for far too long. As a white person, I cannot even begin to comprehend the challenges that the black community faces on a daily basis. What I can do is extend my hand, my help, my support, and my voice.

I learned about the We Love You Project from Vanessa Ford, who will be one of the first two guests, along with her husband JR, on the Breaking Bread Podcast. I have about a million and one questions to ask them and one of the topics I can’t wait to dive into is their activism on so many fronts including race, supporting the local communities where we work and live, LGBTQ, and the challenges and triumphs in education, health, and food equity. We may need to do a multi-part series just to hear all of the interesting conversation.

One project that they recently participated in is the We Love You Project. Started by Bryon Summers, its message is powerful and elegant:

“A simple but powerful reassurance to our black boys and men that even though it feels like they are being murdered and destroyed constantly, we’re still a part of a larger community that loves and supports them.

The images we see in main stream media depict us as less than human – thugs, suspects, and even more, dead and discarded. These are the images that brainwash us into believing there is truth behind them. We’re not worthless. We’re not trash. We’re someone’s son, brother, cousin, uncle, or father. We’re HUMAN!

Through the art of photography we can see just how human and how special we really are. Images can be powerful reinforcements. They can be examples of who we are and aspire to be. WE LOVE YOU, will share portraits of the Black boys and men in our communities showing each other as well as the world that we’re not only human and should be treated as such but we’re LOVED.”

It sent a shiver down my spine to read this mission. It is so needed, especially right now. So far, the project has taken place in New York and D.C. I hope to have Bryon on a future episode of the Breaking Bread Podcast. For now, I’m thrilled to use my blog and other social media channels to support and praise his work!

Check out the We Love You Project at http://www.theweloveyouproject.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/theweloveyouproject.

creativity

Wonder: Surround yourself with beauty

Christa Avampato

Photo by Christa Avampato.
Photo by Christa Avampato.

No matter how much I love city life (and I do!), I need to be out in nature more often than I have been in the past few years. The water, the fresh air, and the colors of the landscape fill me up in a way that a building, no matter how beautiful, just can’t. This weekend in Pennsylvania, I was surrounded by love, friends, and this amazing view. And it feeds my soul. Once this heat and humidity settle down, I’m going to fulfill my promise to myself to get out into the wilds of Virginia and Maryland and take it all in. Until then, this picture will do. (I snapped it at Ledges Hotel in Hawley, Pennsylvania this weekend.)

creativity

Wonder: 19 (Cuban) seconds for a photo

Christa Avampato

DSCN1546-1
The duo who took my photo in 19 (Cuban) seconds

“Get an old-fashioned photo!” the young man called to me in Parque Central in Old Havana.

“How long does it take to develop?” I asked.

“19 seconds.”

I should have known better. Everything in Cuba takes a long time. Every. Little. Thing. No one is in a hurry to do anything or go anywhere. In Cuba, even time takes time. People say it’s frozen in time in the 1950s. I’d go back much further than that.

What I didn’t realize is that we weren’t paying for a photo. We were paying for the experience of having the photo taken. An old man and a young man had a ramshackle camera, the likes of which I’d never seen. Jerry rigged from old parts gathered from discarded items (reduce, recycle, reuse, again and again and again is a way of life in Cuba), we watched in wonder over the 19 minutes, not the 19 seconds it took to snap and develop the photo. The show was worth every penny if the 2 bucks we paid, and then some.

This was always the way all over Cuba. You don’t pay for goods, you pay for the experience you gain and the time of the people you meet gathering the goods. You invest in the people and their ingenuity. Once you make that mental leap, waiting isn’t an inconvenience nor a chore in Cuba. It’s an honor, a gift, and a pleasure.

creativity

Wonder: I’m baaaaaack…

Christa Avampato

Hello all. It has been over a month since I’ve published to this blog and I want to tell you why I so abruptly took the longest break that I’ve taken in the 9 years since I’ve been writing it.

In March, I received a letter from a photography website threatening to sue me for using an image on a blog post four year ago. That’s right – a single picture, that I got from Pinterest, for a single post, 4 years ago, and I had attributed it to the artist. They never sent me a takedown notice. They just skipped right to suing me for thousands of dollars. By the grace of the universe, my friend, Amanda, connected me to a wonderful attorney who agreed to represent me, and it seems that the issue has evaporated. I haven’t heard a word from them since.

So, I’m back. This has been a wonderful time for me to creatively reflect on my writing and I’ve plowed a lot of time into a number of wildly creative projects including finishing a working draft of my novel, Where the Light Enters, getting one of my paper collages displayed in a gallery in D.C., continuing my writing for The Washington Post, planning a trip to Cuba (yes, CUBA!), and joining a film production company here in D.C. as an associate producer. All while keeping my day job at an education technology startup and being in the process of buying a condo here in D.C.

What I do want to make abundantly clear is that I’ve missed you. A lot. I miss the conversations back and forth. I miss hearing how you’re doing. I miss updating you on what I’m doing, seeing, and hearing. I’ve missed this outlet and I’m thrilled to be back. So here’s to you. Here’s to me. And I’m so glad we’re back together.

And to speak to the unfortunate photo incident of March 2016, all photos that you see on this site were either taken by me or for me. If you want to use any of them, you are absolutely free to do so. No questions asked. Just add a little attribution with my name and this website URL http://christaavampato.com. Let’s never be apart for that long again, okay? Okay.