Monday, January 30, 2012

Brooklyn Book Project : Building 92, Brooklyn Navy Yard

Gallery view, Building 92, Brooklyn Navy Yard, 2012.

Cafe view, Building 92, Brooklyn Navy Yard, 2012.


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Brooklyn Book Project : Polar Bear Swim

Polar bears, Coney Island, Brooklyn, 2012.

Polar Bear Swim, Coney Island, Brooklyn, 2011.

Polar Bear Swim, Coney Island, Brooklyn, 2012.

Still contemplating on whether to add horizontal shots to my Brooklyn Book project or keep them all square...?


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2011, A Year in Review

I used to send out a newsletter to keep everyone up to date on work, publishings and exhibitions, but in 2011 I established two blogs which is enough to keep up with and still leave time for shooting. Besides this blog, Valery Rizzo Photographer, a place for updates on assignments, personal projects, publishings and exhibitions I also created Eating Brooklyn, a food photography blog, to explore my interest in food photography and styling as well as expand on my focus of Brooklyn.


Eating Brooklyn provided many opportunities for me. It was chosen as a finalist for Saveur Magazine's 2011 Best Food Blog Awards, Best Original Savory Recipe and was featured on Blogs.com as one of the 10 Best Food Blogs About Places and I was asked to author the list. It also provided me with assignment work such as a monthly photo feature for Brooklyn Food Website Nona Brooklyn about Local, artisanal and sustainably produced food in Brooklyn and the people behind it. I was hired to photograph restaurants, such as iCi in Fort Greene, I shot a food story with Family Records recording artist Rosi Golan and I was even given an MTA, Arts for Transit Exhibition from it, called "Grown in Brooklyn" and features urban agriculture in Brooklyn.


This year however I am hoping this is the blog to watch so please subscribe or follow as I would like to focus more on my assignments, personal work and most importantly my Brooklyn Book Project. I am entering the fifth year of working on it and my goal is to make 2012 the year I finish all the work and work on getting it published in 2013. Book jacket design and introduction are planned by Magnum photographer Claudio Edinger.

Wanted, West Indian Day Carnival, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 2011.

Polar bear swim, Coney Island, Brooklyn, 2010.

Book jacket design © Claudio Edinger

Photographs from my Brooklyn Book project were published in several books. Play! A Collection of Sixty-three Toy Camera Photographs Made by Thirty-six Photographers in Twelve Countries (benefiting Toys for Tots), PDN's PHOTOBOOK NYC, Toycam, Lo-Fi Photography and 13th International Krappy Kamera Exhibition.



I was one of the many food photographers (Polaroids included) featured with case studies in the great Lara Ferroni's new Food Photography and Styling Book.


I continue to shoot stock for Getty Images and Alamy and publications from those agencies last year included: Marie Claire India, Canadian Living, Parenting Magazine, Hearst Communications, Hearst Digital Media, Tribune Company, Time Inc., Microsoft Multimedia Publishing, Disney Publishing, Irish Times, Washington Post, WebMD Corp, The Daily News, ABC.com and numerous various others.


Below are the links to the Photo Features I shot this year for Nona Brooklyn. I actually get to mix some of my Holga shooting into these stories. The first two features (last two in list) are completely shot with Holga.












I was featured and interviewed by Toycamera.com and Great Food Photos


Exhibitions of 2011 Included:

MTA, Arts For Transit, Grown in Brooklyn by Photographer Valery Rizzo, at The Atlantic Avenue Terminal

FINCH & ADA Autumn Exhibition, A Decade of Photography in the Aftermath of 9/11, curated by Ruben Natal-San Miguel


Brooklyn to Bloomsbury, Bloomsbury teamed up with the New York Photo Festival to exhibit some of their favorites from the Capture Brooklyn Exhibition at the Powerhouse Arena, Bloomsbury Lanes, London, UK

Online Exhibitions included:

591 Photography Blog: Children's Days
Brooklyn - Valery Rizzo (part two)

Lenscratch: Summer Exhibition




Over all 2011 was a great year and I hope 2012 will be even better.