B&H's new video series, "Women of Influence", provides 10 interviews with a select group of female photographers who are each shaping the industry in their own unique way. Each week, a new episode becomes available to view (although you can watch sneak peeks of the entire series now) beginning with Sony Artisan, Cristina Mittermeier.
Cristina's work has long been centered on environmental conservation. Her work as a marine biologist led her to photography as a means of bringing attention to the issues she cared about. "I tried to address some of the pressing issues facing our oceans with science and I published scientific papers and pretty soon I realized that people don't really get excited or emotionally attached to issues with science." This revelation caused Mittermeier to pivot and try a different approach, "...photography is something that I stumbled upon as a great way of engaging people in a larger conversation about environmental issues and issues related to things that are not a part of their everyday lives." She goes on to point out that photographs, as visual aids, make conceptual things more accessible to the masses saying, "Photography is a great way of making people aware."
Cristina Mittermeier shares that her first images to be used in an exhibit weren't even credited to her. Instead, they were credited to her ex-husband whose camera she had borrowed on a trip they had both taken in the Amazon. Mitterrmeier recounts, "The Houston Museum of Natural Sciences asked [her ex-husband] for a few images for a big collection of Amazonian art that they were exhibiting. And then we went to the opening and there it was; And it was everywhere they had posters and postcards and all credited to his name." Following that experience she says she decided to pursue photography more seriously by enrolling in an adult education program at Corcoran School of the Arts & Design to study.
Stay tuned for the weekly release of the each of the other videos in the series including Sony Artisans Vivienne Gucwa, Katrin Eismann, and Sony Artisan Brooke Shaden.
