Meet Alice Esposito | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alice Esposito and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alice, why did you pursue a creative career?
I love connection, with people with places, I love the lightness of feelings, some can be everlasting but at the same time nonpermanent, and the photography process helps me keep all of it with me and understand it better, I have always been interested in people and their relation to light and space surrounding them.

My photography is a response and documentation of the experiences of my life; and consequently, the subjects of my work are the people that surround me: my community.
Connection is another important element, I rarely photograph people without having a conversation with them, I want to understand the person I’m about to photograph, their mannerisms, their posture,
what makes them laugh, cry, and think. I love to see the place where they live, to know what they’re passionate about, simply, what kind of energy surrounds them.

I’m inspired by the place where people live, usually, it’s where they are most comfortable and at ease.
I see the home as a personal temple, where you can get rid of the layers you put on for society, where you can put down your mask, relax your facial muscles, and just be you without inhibitions.
When you understand the soul, the essence of a person it becomes easy to capture their attitude and presence with the camera.

Some of my best shots happen during nights out with friends and family, getting lost in new landscapes, during unexpected adventures while we end up often in good trouble.
Sometimes the best photographs are happy accidents, you can set up at the scene perfectly and try to control all the elements of it, but you need to be ready for things to go wrong and play with it, you need to have a sense of contingency, you need to be willing to transform your expectations and reshape your initial idea.

I love conversation, I want to engage with the person that I’m about to photographs, I want to know what they know, I want to know their favorite place, their favorite food, how they became the person that they are now, listening to stories of their childhood, their dreams, their fears.

I want the full life experience of the person in front of me, sometimes I become obsessed with this method, at times before taking a portrait of a person it takes me days, weeks, to find the perfect moment, sometimes, after 5 minutes, it depends when I see what I want to capture, then I’m ready to get behind the camera, I hope it doesn’t sound too stalker-ish but I just love to know people I guess, but at the same time I think I’m a bit shy, closed off the first time people meet me, partially because I’m hard of hearing and it takes me a while to grasp their way of talking and communicate, so I can better understand them, once this process is complete everything flows much better and that’s then when I open up more, I’m still very guarded, I think
the camera offers me some kind of protection, but it also gives me courage, I don’t only appreciate and love the camera as a tool for my work, but also as an instrument for me to come out of my shell without being too scared, I guess.

My photography is built around the concept of family and connection, some of the photographers that inspired me, helped me build this notion of “tribe” from an abstract base to a physical shape as Nan Goldin, Richard Billingham, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Diane Arbus.
From them I learned that the Camera gives you access to other people’s lives, I want to navigate between the reality at the surface of life and bring a dreamy nostalgia
that surrounds me and the people I love in it.

In my photographs, I want to create a unique and bizarre atmosphere surrounded by dreamy imagination.

As I mentioned before, light is a big source of inspiration for me, I love using both natural light and stark lighting artificial effects, to achieve a particular feeling, I often play with double exposure when using film to give a more
dynamic feeling.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I grew in Europe surrounded by art, I spent the weekends getting lost in Rome, London, Budapest, Stockholm, wherever I was living at that time, because of this, I’m very interested in iconography, subtle meaning, and allusion inside my work, I use light, space, and movements as the main part of my photographic language.

At the beginning of my career, I was fascinated by everything and everyone, I could shot 3-4 films per day, I was just amazed by everything and I just went out without any specific ideas, now I plan more, but when the moment it’s appropriate my instinct still prevail, I research a lot and I’m very attentive to details and the environment that surrounds me, I welcome mistakes, accident and unpredictable moment but I make sure that my instinct isn’t the only thing I rely upon.

I also watched a lot of Italian Neorealism, Nouvelle Vague, and Film Noir, they all influence my work greatly.

I’m deeply inspired by Federico Fellini. He created an extremely personal film language, the way he could blend his imaginary vision and baroque images to create a world where we all want to visit, it’s just what I aim to achieve.

As an Immigrant queer disable woman hasn’t always been easy, I had to leave a lot behind me, and learn how to be on my own even during hard times, I have to start everything from zero, no connection no friends, many people still do not understand why I made this choice, leaving family and friends behind, going to a new continent, with a new language and a different society, but I think this is what being human is, it’s all about the experience and meeting people in places far away from everything that is familiar and learn from them in order to become a better person and a better Artist

I love to learn from other cultures, other people, it opens my mind and it gave me a wider understanding of humanity, at the end of the day, artists are like anthropologists.

Of course, you need to be prepared to leave a lot of things behind like family & friends, and understand that once you go back, everything may look and feel different…

five years ago I lost my mother and every time I go back to Italy is painful, it’s different, but at the same time going back reconnects me with her, with the memories I have of her.
Everything feels new in a different way, it’s something people need to be aware of, things will change and will change you as well whatever you want it or not.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I think, especially now, after 14 months in quarantine due to my high-risk situation, if my best friend wanted to visit me, I’ll probably do a road trip, I would take my car drive around the city to the most inspiring places.

Starting from the Arts District downtown stopping to enjoy the architecture as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Union Station, Bradbury Building we would stop maybe for some Tacos while walking around Boyle Heights.

I love going to the museums, so we’ll have to visit the basics: The Getty, LACMA,The Broad, try to get In some galleries opening or special event in order to discover some new artists.

I’ll take the car and just drive through the Big Sur and around, stopping at some of my favorite places and possibly discover some new ones.

We’ll be going hiking at the Redwood Forest stopping at the McWay Falls,the Sequoia National Park,I always loved Ojai, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Solvang, I’ll probably ask the locals and find some new interesting places to go.

I love live music so I’ll just go where live events are and enjoy the evening with friends and making new one.

As far as food, I love fish and Italian food, of course, DeSano has one of the best pizza, when my father visits we always go there or Da Pasquale!

Bestia and Chi Spacca are also very good.

On Abbot Kinney they have one friday per month a huge food truck event, I’ll want to stop there for sure!

Mexican food it’s a must in LA, I love Sol Y Luna in the Valley, El Borrego De Oro in Boyle Heights, keep the night going and get some drinks at the Seven Grand or at Melrose Umbrella Co. these are my favorites place to go, the atmosphere is amazing.

End the night with a traditional Italian gelato at Fata Morgana and call it a night!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Martina Antonioni (she is the subject of many of my photos) is an amazing Italian painter that inspires me every day with her words and with her work. Her art encapsulates what I want to do with my photography, it brings you to a new dimension, built with abstract colors and shapes that wrap around you to make you feel safe, her understanding of colors, shapes, and contrasts will let you navigate in feelings and memories you may have forgotten or unfamiliar with, when you look at her paintings they gave you the strength to be free, to feel and be who you really are, its about freedom and acceptance and personal research, almost like therapy, to help you become a better version of yourself and help other simultaneously.

Website: https://www.espositoalice.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alice.cooper.esposito/?hl=en

Twitter: @coop_veritas

Image Credits
portrait photo by Claudia Caldara