Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Tricca.
Michelle, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Firstly, thank you Voyage MIA for supporting local creatives!
I just turned 50. I love my life and career as a portrait photographer. The path of artistic evolution is never predictable and becomes most clear and appreciated in retrospect.
This is how I got to where I am:
Growing up on the beaches of Cape Cod, I was always the one of my friends to take the camera out to document our frolics. I reveled in the anticipation of getting the film developed and made prints for everyone. We all kept massive photo collages on our walls. The tangible memories served as an awesome reminder (especially during the brutal winters) of those carefree times together. We would also take out a friend’s camcorder and record video direct to VHS. I’m a sentimentalist and am moved by emotion, love, and life.
The process of photographing and filming these interludes was an obsession for me. In high school, wanting to learn more, I drove to Boston to participate in Teen TV, a television series produced by and for teens. I was completely engaged in absorbing all aspects of ‘set life.’
In college, thinking I wanted to be a news anchor, I interned for a Cape Cod cable news station. I loved the energy of producing news segments, being out in the field and on set. I majored in Psychology & Communications w the intention to go into broadcast journalism. Being innately introverted and shy, I realized my preference and comfortability was behind the scenes, behind the lens. My bedroom walls were plastered with fashion portraits from W Magazine – back when W was a folded color glossy newspaper. My favorite courses were B&W darkroom + Advanced Art Photography. I spent long weekend days processing film and making prints in the darkroom (I’m from the analog days, a decade before hearing the word “pixel.”). Hours would fly by and it became clear what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
After graduation, I interned as a photojournalist with a Cape Cod newspaper. With the portfolio I built that summer, I moved to Newport Beach, California and showed my work to anyone who would look. While working freelance assignments for a newspaper, model management agency and surf company, I worked part-time at Abercrombie & Fitch, as I was inspired by their larger than life visual display portraits by Bruce Weber. I ended up taking home many 10’ photographs to hang on my walls.
A year after college, I was in a near-fatal car crash. This was my life changer, my epiphany to the fragility of life. During the five months of physical therapy to regain use of my arm & leg, I began a bucket list. I also decided to dedicate myself to my true love – photography. When I healed, my first trip was on safari to East Africa. As fate would have it, some chance encounters made it a dream come true. Prior to my journey, I received a gear and film sponsorship from Canon & Kodak. Then, I met the director of photography from Simon & Schuster Publishers who was buying photographs for their McMillan’s Dictionary for Children. The book now contains a body of my images of the Masai Tribe and wildlife.
A few years later, I seized an opportunity to move to Hawaii, to fulfill my fantasy of living on Gilligans’ Island. I worked as a portrait photographer shooting editorial for Hawaii based and international surf magazines.
One summer, I spent two months doing a work study at Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, which became another life changer. I associated with photographers of every genre which greatly influenced my work.
After an awesome seven years in Hawaii, I moved to San Diego to work in the photo dept of a Snowboard Magazine. I left that job to start a photographic t.shirt line. That led me to move to SW Florida in 2005.
Currently, I’m living and working in Naples, FL. Globetrotting remains part of my lifestyle. My fascination with this world’s abundance of behaviors, cultures, and pastimes has kept a camera in my hand. Photography is my ticket to discovery. It has been my fast track to making the acquaintance of a stranger in a third world country. Where language has been a barrier, my camera, and a smile, generated friendship. My East Coast work ethic mixed with the laid back lifestyle refined by living in Southern California & Hawaii for 15 years has made me the functioning beach bum that I am today. I believe in karma, am motivated by sentiment and always come back to the beach.
When I am shooting, I am idle, focused, in the present. Locked into the moment of timelessness, I often feel while making a picture. It’s the only time I’m not reflecting on the past or projecting into the future. Truly in my element, photography has become my lifestyle. Whether creating images for commissioned jobs or personal work, photography is my way of life.
What I love about this medium is that photographs transcend language, culture, and age. The desire to make pictures never goes away. Studying light and composition are innate to me. If I’m staring at you, my mind is most likely sorting out how I’d photograph you.
Has it been a smooth road?
The life of an artist is rarely smooth, thank goodness. I don’t believe predictability behooves artistic evolution.
Most notably for me:
Moving several times, having to start fresh and re-establish myself.
The switch from film to digital. I fought it until the bitter end and finally made the transition to digital in 2004. It was a learning curve to learn a new way to create & manage photographs and an investment of time + finance (acquiring new gear, memory cards, computer, software, doo-dads, education workshops, becoming the lab instead of dropping the film off at the lab…). That year had me longing for the simplicity of image making, which led to getting my one and only tattoo – the simple Holga camera!
Unless you’re a salaried employee with full-time benefits and a boss dictating the path of your art, as an artist, you’re on your own. The freedom of the Solopreneur Creative life outweighs the challenges, however, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a portrait photographer in Naples, Florida and run a full-service boutique studio. My work is inspired by emotion, the ocean, adventure, and love. As a purveyor of visual sentiment, my core value is creating photographs you can feel, metaphorically and physically. I believe in the power of photographs to take you back to moments & illicit the feeling all over again.
Portrait photography is important. I recognize that and accept that responsibility. A cancer survivor celebrating the end of her chemo, a man proposing to the love of his life waist deep in the Everglades swamp, a multi-generational family frolicking together by the shore, parents bonding with their children… these images will mean more tomorrow than they do today and will only increase in value over time. Portraits are an investment in sentiment.
What sets me apart ~ Visual heirlooms! My clients value their images in printed format. Wall art, coffee table photo books and custom portrait box collections that are timeless and of professional grade. Such moments deserve more than a flip thru on a news feed. These photographs are to display in the home and will be around for generations to enjoy. Prints matter and this is my bottom line. It gratifies me as an image maker and serves two purposes for my clients – art + sentiment.
I also pursue personal work, investing my time into personal projects that are rooted in ethical and sentimental values. It not only helps support the community and celebrates humanity, but it also infuses art into unsuspecting places. The aspect of form + function is really soulful for me. This work is motivated by the human condition and I believe in visual storytelling’s ability to promote social change.
In 2011, I produced A Face In The Crowd – a photographic tribute to human diversity. The 1,000 sq ft mural consisting of 1,000 portraits of SW Florida residents was installed for nine months on a Naples industrial building.
Arts play an important role in opening areas of economic development and I think artists have a great opportunity to give back, provide hope and inspire people by creating compelling imagery for the greater good.
Right now, I am very excited to be in the beginning phases of a new project celebrating the soul of Immokalee, an underserved agricultural community in Collier County. Just this week, a unanimous vote by the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency approved for me to proceed with The Face Of Immokalee, a photography-based art installation consisting of compelling portraits honoring the strength, resiliency, and character of Immokalee’s residents, who are making a significant contribution to its history and culture. I’m excited to reveal more information on this humanitarian documentary project as things progress! Join the project on Instagram for updates https://www.instagram.
Tell us about your childhood, what were you like growing up?
I grew up in an Italian family of entrepreneurs. I was a deep thinker, sentimental, introverted and shy. At the same time, I loved to laugh and goof off. Watching world news and travel shows were always fascinating as it opened my mind to life beyond the conservative Cape Cod town in which I grew up. I loved looking at photographs and am a visual learner. My family traveled around so I got used to the change of scenery & people in my life. I feel most comfortable behind the lens, it’s like my wingman.
In high school, I was never in a clique and was friendly with all groups. I enjoyed roller skating and breakdancing. I had a few best friends and valued quality over quantity. I still do.
Cape Cod is a vacation destination in the summer, so I loved meeting different people every year and the opportunities for fun, social and beach oriented activities to enjoy with my friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: michelletricca.com
- Email: motricca@hotmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/mo_tric/ - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/the_face_of_ immokalee/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/michelletricca
Image Credit:
Me – by Megan DiPiero
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