Carmella Cardina

Pro Type: Photographer

I am Carmella Cardina, a self-taught lens-based artist living in Los Angeles.

I bought my first camera, a Petri fixed lens, when I was 17 years old for $45 from a pawnshop, and fell in love with the world through a camera lens. A camera collector, I currently shoot with a Nikon D90, Rolleiflex, Super Fujica 6, and a Polaroid 600. On the rare occasion I’ll use my phone to shoot a cat photo, because don’t we all.

I received my B.A. from Catawba College and an MFA in Directing from Florida State University, and have enjoyed a career working in film and television. After thirty plus years, it seemed like the right time for a change.

I set up my studio in the garage amongst actual garage things: bicycles, rusted tools, gardening supplies and boxes of random stuff which adds diversity and range to my choice of subjects.

When I began to shoot again, I noticed what was right in front of me and started to shoot the drill bits and random tools, old coins, little plastic army men, an actual pacemaker, a host of dead creatures including rats, mice, lizards, birds and bugs that found their way into the garage and died, and of course, a partially eaten lamb chop from lunch.

Next came a series of ongoing self-portraits exploring the aging process of a woman’s face and body, mine specifically. I discovered I was shooting my own vulnerability.

I photograph what I find interesting and intriguing, and I view my own body as well as my entire body of work as a long series in progress. They are all connected even if I’m not certain as to why or how.

“I was inventing a language for people to see the everyday things that I see and show them something different.” -Francesca Woodman