hmmm...

I went to de-install my show from artomatic today. On my wall I discovered a poem left by an artist who also participated in the show:

DOLLS' EYES

To Marisa Marchitelli's art

See how these dolls awaken
To the idea they've been forsaken;
Once they dreamed of a little girl's love
But now their eyes are tearless and vacant.

Brash

Never has anyone dedicated a poem to me or my work before. I suspect I wasn't the only one, but it's still an unusual gesture. She left her email address. Should I write to her?

scuba dooby doo...

Earlier this month, I took my second trip to the Keys this year for some scuba diving. I have a Sealife DC600 and while I curse the day this camera was conceived, and even more, the day that I thought purchasing it was a good idea, it has given me some tolerable videos. (A more in depth explanation will be subject for a future blog post.) Enjoy!

milonga triste

This is a tango short that I produced, directed and edited.



A very special thanks to Carina Losano and Maximiliano Gonzalez for their talented tango skills, and the ever-lovely Dorita for her incredible presence and powerful voice. Also, my precious crew: Iwan, Olivia, Stefano, Chris, David, Tara and Yayo.

Fields of green...

As 'done' as it may be I can never resist these cut and pasted panoramas.

Seeing double?

I hadn't been back to Hong Kong for close to 6 years. It was the longest I had ever been away and was feeling nostalgic when my brother and I decided to visit in January. Of course, we wanted to do all the usual things: visit our school, go to our old homes, and we couldn't forget to pay a visit to Andy, our friend and trusted camera dealer since I was 5 years old.

Delon Photo is, and has always been, located in the bustling shopping mecca that is Ocean Centre. The store has made minor moves within the mall, and downsized considerably, but has never been a disappointment in terms of being a reliable resource for all the needs of a professional and amateur photographer alike.

I wasn't looking to make a purchase. I just wanted to visit an old friend. Andy has seen my love of photography blossom from the early years and when I mentioned I was considering a basic point-and-shoot camera, he presented me with two: the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2K and the Leica D-Lux 3.

I was a little confused. I thought he was playing some sort of optical trick on me. Upon handling, they appeared to be the same camera. All of the features, buttons and screen size were identical. Besides the obvious superficial differences on the body, it was truly the same camera: the same aperture range, identical lens, 24-bit color depth, a manual (yes manual) focusing option with a joystick toggle (takes some getting used to), same iso sensitivity range, fully versatile exposure settings much like an SLR, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios for video recording, multiple light metering options, RAW image capture possibilities, identical effective resolution of 10.2 megapixels...

I could go on, but I think you get the point (tee-hee... photo pun). And just look at it! It is adorably reminiscent of charming manual cameras of days gone by. What more can a 'serious' photographer hope for in a little toy to stick in your purse. Bottom line, the Leica is a little steep at $600, but the Lumix can be purchased for as little as $373.88 on amazon.com!

Best part is, Leica accessories are compatible so you needn't sacrifice this stylish leather pouch at the expense of saving a buck.


Like everything in life, there is one major downside to this camera Leica and Lumix alike: there is no underwater housing for it. Being an avid scuba diver, this is something I'm looking for in my dream pocket camera. Perhaps it will be released at the Photoplus Expo this fall. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Commission me.

I've always loved to paint and draw in addition to taking photos. I often take photographs I've shot, and rework them into paintings. Never did I imagine I could make money from this. Somehow, the idea of it doesn't settle well with me.

After much berating, my good friend Brandon insisted that I take this photo of his fiancé's grandfather, and transform it into one of my characteristically yellow/red/high-contrast/acrylic creations. I think one of my issues with it is that I don't love every painting I make, and I have separation anxiety from those that I do. This painting, for example, misses me and wants to come home.

Now that I'm working on my forth commission I'm getting over it.

Why a routine googling of oneself is important.

1. You realize that the pro-Palestine petition that an NYU hottie convinced you to sign in Washington Square might not have been the wisest decision.

2. You find yourself saying (on more than one occasion), 'Someone actually decided to post those photos of me online?'

3. You discover that one of your former students gave you a suspiciously positive online rating:

"Marisa is an excellent teacher with a great sense of humor. She chooses incredible photographs for lectures and always has some interesting commentary to go along with them. She encourages creativity, and pushes her students to improve their writing."

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité!!

I'm about to take down I show I installed last month in Washington, DC. Artomatic is a yearly art event featuring multi-media work typically displayed in a huge raw space. It embraces art as a community, rejecting any type of social segmentation, or high society art culture. Anyone can participate, and no commission is taken from the artist. It's a complete anti-Chelsea model. While this results in exciting possibilities for artistic expression, the lack of curation can leave a viewer somewhat lost and confused when aimlessly navigating through 10 floors of random work. The key is patience, and a hand-held fan. (Strategically placed bars on certain nights also aid in the process.)

This year, the venue was a newly constructed, unfinished, office building on First Street, NE. I chose to embrace the salon-style ambiance, and use my 11 feet of drywall to the fullest. I included both paintings and photography. No frames, no fuss.

My 4 photographs are composite images of dolls from different ethnic backgrounds that mimic my own. They're digital c-prints that I had done at printspace and I couldn't have been more pleased with the result. The portraits are acrylic on canvas and are derived from my photography. The layout shown is to scale with the largest photograph sized at 30x60".

Media circus, literally.

Every spring, New York is blessed with a bizarre and unusual event: the elephant walk. An awesome sight to those who have never seen it, a heard of elephants decked out in circus garb, parade the streets of Manhattan from Long Island City to Madison Square Garden where the circus performs. Mind you, this happens at about 1am on an average weeknight. Being the official Ringling Bros. photographer, I didn't have to run the streets, dodging other photographers and elephants alike. Instead, I rode on the lead pick-up truck and observed evil glares from the shooters on the ground.

SVA, revisited.

I first moved to New York in August of 2003. I came to pursue my MFA in Photography, Video & Related Media at SVA. I had been living in Chiangmai, Thailand for 1.5 years prior, working successfully as a photography studio owner. At the end of the two-year program, I decided to stay in the 'big city' and pursue a career in the freelance world of photography and video.

Last night, SVA's Visual Arts Gallery hosted their annual MFA Thesis exhibition for my old department. I decided to attend. I hadn't been to the show last year so was excited to run into classmates I haven't seen for a while, and re immerse myself in all-things-photo.

I was eagerly greeted by the head of the department, Charles Traub. He gave me a hug and told me that he mentioned my thesis project to other students in the recent past. I felt honored that he remember a project that he hasn't seen for three years with such fondness.


For my thesis, I created a book in collaboration with Yolanda Cuomo called FAMILY ALBUM. It is a hand bound, self printed book featuring approximately 100 portraits of individuals from my family, extended family and social groups. I have a complicated background (Thai/Italian parents, grew up in Hong Kong and attended a French School), so as a result my family is quite spread out ethnically, economically and socially. Many of them don't even know about each other. The photographs were paired with text: writings of random tidbits of information from the day of each of the shoots. Melissa Harris of Aperture may not have deemed it of marketable value to be published, but it's my work and what I love to shoot.

ˈblog, ˈbläg'

A Blog, according to Miriam Webster's online dictionary, is a short for 'web log'. It is a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Michele convinced me today that I need such a outlet. Apparently, the static website portfolio is a thing of the virtual past. In an effort to avoid falling into a cyber-black hole, I was convinced that I had no choice.

I am Marisa. Welcome to my blog.