Monica Agosta

The best way to describe Monica Agosta's photography is love at first sight - whether it was the first time she saw an Ansel Adams image or the excitement she felt when she received her first camera for free after mailing in several Bazooka gum wrappers at age eight - love is infused in her artistry. Agosta worked as a photo assistant for the Associated Press in Manhattan during the news service's 150th anniversary in 1998. She also served as a photo assistant at Gannett's Journal News, during it's "birth" that same year, and had some of her work published weekly in the gardening section of the paper. In 1991, she interned at Eyewitness News, WABC-TV on the assignment desk an learned the video production process, skills that added to the depth of her photography. Agosta received her degree in Radio/Television production at the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1991. Although mainly self-taught, she received instruction in 2006 at The Maine Photographic Workshops with Ira Block, a National Geographic photographer, in 1997 at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan with Maggie Steber, a documentary photographer, and a photojournalism class with Yva Momatiuk of National Geographic at SUNY - New Paltz in 1990. Agosta has participated in several juried group and solo shows of her work at various Art Councils, libraries and galleries here on Long Island. Agosta has won numerous awards for her work. She was a finalist in the 1997 spring photography contest sponsored by Photographer's Forum Magazine. Her photo entitled "Catch the Wave" depicted a surfer from Huntington Beach, California on a wild ride was ranked in the top five percent of 32,000 entries and appeared in a book called The Best of Photography Annual: 1997. While she was a member of the Westchester Professional Photographer's Association in 1997, she won a number of merit awards recognizing her work with outdoor photography. She was a semi-finalist for International Library of Photography Photo Contest in 2001. Her photo entitled "Uh-O" shows here son Vinnie, then a curious one-year-old child caught in the act of making a mess with birthday cake all over his face.