I have a formal background in graphic design and photography, and my career has revolved around these fields in various capacities.

Upon completing art school, I designed an identity and brochure for the now-closed New Lincoln School, a private institution on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Interestingly, I had to take a break from my book design assistant job at Viking Press/Penguin Books to attend my graduation.

During my time at Viking/Penguin, I secured a NYSCA grant to document the architecture of Queens Cemeteries, with the resulting images exhibited at the Queens Historical Society. This project was followed by another funded by the NEA, focusing on similar subject matter, and displayed at the Municipal Art Society in New York.

Following my tenure at Viking, I took a significant step by opening my photography studio, where I pioneered a location in Chinatown. Within the studio, I shot several national advertising campaigns, one of which featured my images in prestigious magazines like Vogue, Mademoiselle, Vanity Fair, Elle, and Seventeen. My clients included advertisers and publishing houses, and I successfully managed the studio for 15 years.

While commercial photography was exciting, I eventually felt the urge to create more personal work. Consequently, I closed the studio and began working on my art from my apartment. There, I produced prints for installations showcased across Europe. My innovative work led to grants for a residency in Cologne, Germany, and my most experimental pieces were exhibited in Amsterdam. Despite my international experiences, I eventually found myself missing New York and returned home.

The harsh reality of installation work in the US is that experimental projects struggle to secure funding. To support my installation endeavors, I worked as a production color analyst for commercial printers and utilized the income to continue exhibiting my work. Over time, I worked my way up to the position of manufacturing director for two consumer publications.

While I continued my photography, I received a grant to create a substantial body of work centered on the instability of life in the declining industrial Midwest region of the United States. This project led to a commission from a museum in upstate New York to document industrial structures in Columbia County. The result was a solo exhibition at the Columbia County Historical Society Museum in Kinderhook, NY.

One day, I came across a teaching opportunity at City Tech, and that’s how my journey into academia began.

Please visit anitagiraldo.com to see my artwork.