Tria Giovan
Tria first picked up a camera at age eight, while growing up in the Virgin Islands. A New York City photographer for more than 20 years, she has successfully pursued both commercial shooting and personal long-term projects, creating a diverse, exciting, and prolific career.
From magazine assignments (Coastal Living, Esquire, ESPN Sports, Hampton Cottages & Gardens, House Beautiful, Islands, Real Simple, Travel & Leisure, and Veranda, among others) to catalog and advertising clients (Pottery Barn, The Company Store, Ross Simon, Harp Beer, and Tiffany & Co.) she has photographed everything from tropical resorts, to diamond jewelry, to Hampton’s artists and their studios, and in such far- reaching places as the Louvre in Paris to McSorely’s Ale House in New York City. The principal photographer on several books (Age of Elegance-Interiors-Alex Papachristidis Rizzoli 2012 and Domestic Art-Curated Interiors-Holly Moore Assouline 2008), she counts many of today’s top interior designers as collaborators and clients. She has exhibited widely in the US and abroad, and, to date, has published 2 monographs of her personal work (Sand Sea Sky-The Beaches of Sagaponack-Damiani 2012 and Cuba The Elusive Island-Abrams 1996).
Whether photographing violin makers in Cremona Italy, Cindy Sherman on her front porch in Sag Harbor, NY, or the mid-century Phillip Johnson/De Menil residence in Houston, TX, her sensitivity to her subjects and surroundings is evident in the relaxed and organic interaction that occurs on her shoots. With her experience comes a mastery of the craft, a command of light and composition, and an attunement to defining detail that informs her work whether she is photographing people, places, or things.
Her personal work has been defined by comprehensive, timely, and in-depth subject exploration. In 1990 she began work on a project that would comprise twelve month-long trips to Cuba over a six-year period. Cuba The Elusive Island, published by Harry N. Abrams in 1996 brought together 100 of these images along with a selection of writings by some of Cuba’s most important writers.
In spring 2012 Damiani published Sand Sea Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponack. The 63 images selected from a 10,000 image project reveal the complex visual embodiment of the artist’s decade-long meditations on nature’s transient fragility. Sand Sea Sky is the winner of the 2012 International Photography Award for best nature book.
Her work has shown in New York City, Athens, Greece, Washington, DC, and Havana, Cuba, and is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Jewish Museum, and The NY Public Library, all in New York City.
