Alice Esposito Focuses on Connection

As photographic artist Alice Esposito’s work evolves, she is focusing on evocative portraiture and scene. Noting that connection has always been an important element of her photography, she says that she rarely photographs her subjects without having a conversation with them first.

“I want to understand the person I’m about to photograph, their mannerisms, their posture, their passion, their happiness and their sadness,” she says.

As has been the case for many of us, the pandemic changed many of the ways in which she connected to people. “Being immune compromised, I had to isolate myself for almost two years, and my photography paid the price for this lack of connection.  Once I was able to pick up my camera again, I noticed that my photographic process changed with me… I decided to dig dipper into my fears and the sense of solitude, nostalgia and belonging, and the result were darker images.”

Esposito also decided to simplify her photographic techinque, now utilizing only a single light and less equipment, creating work that was more about ambience and mood.

“When you understand the soul, the essence of a person, it becomes easy to capture their attitude and presence with the camera, and the absence of light instead of the abundance gave me the perfect set up to do so,” she relates.

The artist is currently working on two different projects, one a research documentary concerning religious rituals and the other focusing on reflections.

Travel and experiencing a variety of cultures are both intrinsic parts of her research documentary projects. “I am only going to bring my Rolleiflex film camera with me. I intend to minimize my equipment as much as possible and try to remain anonymous. This camera gives me the perfect tool do to so.”

She eschews a current photographic approach that utilizes big cameras, lenses, and flashes, as well as social media hype.

“Shooting with the Rolleiflex forces me to look down as if I’m bowing or praying and therefore paying my respect to the people in front of me,” she says, something that should work well for her in regard to her religious subject. “People will always be the center of my work, but I’m trying to remain in the shadows and let the photograph speak for itself.”

Her second project, Reflections, will be realized in part through creating a small, dark, and private portrait studio. “The idea is always for me to disappear and let the subject feel relaxed enough to engage with atmosphere and create their comfort zone, instead of me trying to to do it as in the past. I give the person in front of me full freedom of expression, no forced pose, just the freedom to act.”

Esposito is simplifying her work overall, with one camera, one light, and one set up. Her goal is to let her subjects dictate and play in the studio or whatever location she and they choose. “They will be the actors and I’ll be the audience following their process, observing and experience their journey, and how they connect to the environment surrounding them.” She says she is looking forward to seeing how this new approach will change her photography and her world view.

She attests that she wants her photography to be “polite and respectful, not abraisive or forceful.  I want to be a silent observer, and let the world show me the beauty of it instead of forcing my view on others.”

While acknowledging her presence will always be a part of the images she creates she wants to “feel surprised and be there to catch the moment.”  Her artistic expression is focused on meeting and working with others who have experienced a journey similar to her own and reaching beyond her own comfort zones to use different media in new locations. She attests that she is not “trying to force myself to have ideas or create specific projects. I’m letting my emotion and my passions dictate the next step.”

Esposito herself, above

This is a new approach for Esposito. According to the artist, “Usually I need to be able to control every aspect of my work. I’m always extremely organized in every aspect of my work in every detail. Now,  I’m trying to let it go and be more spontaneous and let others and the world surprise me.”

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

Alice Esposito: Film Festival Winner for The Mockingbird That Fell from The Highest Branch

Alice 1

Italian-born and Los Angeles-based, Alice Esposito is an award winning photographer and filmmaker,  with several film festival success stories in her quiver. Now she’s celebrating a recent win for her short The Mockingbird That Fell from The Highest Branch, which just won Best Comedy at The Prince of Prestige Academy Awards.

TMTFFTHBPoster

The film is a black and white silent comedy inspired by cinema classics such as Fellini’s La Strada, and the comedy of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The story: “A cynical, socially inept Mime lives a life of tiny distractions. Yet, even indulging in his smallest fantasies drives him to fits of rage and despair. A chance encounter with the woman of his dreams compels him into a series of humorously tragic attempts at wooing her.”

Esposito says her choice of creating a silent film project was a highly personal one. 

“Recently I became hard of hearing, and I had to adapt my way of communicating and understanding other people. Not only did I start to learn sign language but I had to rely more and more on my other senses. In doing so, I started to pay attention more to the expressions and gestures of the people that I was talking to, the little ticks, peculiar traits, and the body language of a person became some of the most important elements of communication for me, more than the spoken language. This movie was born from a need to represent my personal process, an extreme exaggeration of my experience, a way to go back to basic communication,” she reports.

Alice 3

Esposito is also a huge fan of Fellini, Chaplin, and Keaton.

​ “Being Italian, my roots reside in the classics of Italian Cinema. I remember watching “La Strada” with my family when I was very young so my understanding of it wasn’t as accurate and full as now. Re-watching it after so many years, I got different aspects and layers of the movie that escaped me during my childhood. Chaplin and Keaton were amazing, complete artists. I feel like they had a magical way to show you the tragic pain that is love and life, leaving you almost longing for these conflicting feelings.” She adds “I think my love for them comes from their approach to life and art and how they were able to pass it to the audience. Their works have different layers, and especially Chaplin, has a way to sneak behind you after a big laugh and show you the truth of life. I think the best comedy is a sad comedy – something that both makes you laugh and think at the same time.”

The evocative title was one of the most difficult aspects of completing the production, she relates. ​”I remember I was in the car with the main actor, Phil Ristaino, and we started to throw titles around… I recalled that in Italian the mockingbird is also called ‘the mime’ and this bird is known for mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects. This is how it started to come together. Also, for me, being in love is like being above every physical experience I know, but at the same time when you heart gets broken the impact to the ground is hard. You could say the title serves to represent this feeling with a tragic romanticism and a pinch of irony in it.”

Esposito notes that this film was for her a passage, moving her on to the next step in her storytelling and style. “It was something that I needed to say and see. All my projects change drastically from one to another; I’m very eclectic about my style and my stories. I think my work is in constant change; for me, each story, each project requires a different visual, a different approach.”

In regard to her approach, the director explains that she’s is fascinated by the Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence, mono no aware.

“One director that was able to visualize this concept was Yasujirō Ozu. I love his appreciation and understanding of simplicity. We tend as humans to make a big deal of everything, but I feel like the answer is in the purity of things…You can see this especially in how I move the camera; I tend to keep everything simple almost static. Sometimes the moving camera deteriorates the composition. Coming from a background in painting and photography that is something very important to me.”

Esposito loves working in the short form, and playing with a sense of time. With The Mockingbird That Fell From The Highest Branch she says “There is not much evidence, especially in the beginning, to where and when we are, and there’s not much technology used in this movie. Only with the last few frames do you get an idea of when and where you are.” That said, she plans to work on a feature soon.

Phil_Ristaino

This film is very much a tour de force for her lead actor, who she met in a San Francisco coffee shop six years ago. “We discovered we’d moved to LA at the same time. I always loved his work. I’m so honored and grateful for his continuous artistic collaboration. He is an outstanding actor and incredible comedian. We really understand each other. I think to find, not only an actor, but a person who understands you on so many levels, is a rare kind of magic.”

The tragi-comedy nature of the film is a delicate balance, one that starts with a personal perception of the world. She believes her long term collaboration with Ristaino made this easier to obtain in Mockingbird.

Phil 2

“We have a similar way of looking at the world and people around us, so to transmit this idea on screen was very natural. Nothing you see was forced or pushed; I wanted this balance to feel organic. Personally I think this perception that I have of the world came from my family and was heightened by events that happened to me this last year. My mother passed away and this completely changed my vision of the world.” According to Esposito, both of her parents taught her every aspect of life and “that everything has layers. Not all that is sad is sad and all that is happy is happy; it’s a subtle balance, that either you have or you don’t. Luckily I was able to show this on screen with actors that could understand this process.”

Alice 2

The project, for all its delicate thematic and visual beauty was shot in a compact three days across Los Angeles, from Eagle Rock to Malibu.

“I shot it with a Canon 5D Mark III with a 50mm lens and I adapted an old 35mm lens from the 60’s that my father gave me. It really gave the movie a classic feeling.”

While product was swift, post-production took substantially longer, almost a year. “I had amazing people on my team both from Italy and the USA. The composers Davide Alberto Centolani and Simone Anichini were phenomenal. We worked with an ocean between us, and they pulled off a soundtrack that gave the movie the mood and texture that you can’t miss. Sometimes I just put the music on repeat – it’s just magical!”

Readers can view this magic here 

  • Genie Davis; Photos provided by Alice Esposito