About The Artist

I’ve been a fine art student for over 44 years, working in all kinds of mediums from the age of 12.

Always a dedicated student, I began my formal art education at Mark Twain JHS for the Gifted and Talented in Brooklyn, NY.  In my three years of study, I won many awards for my art, most notably The Tokyo Art Exchange, where my watercolor of the World Trade Center was displayed in Japan. My parents knew I was on my life path when I won the medal for Best Artist of my graduating class in 1983, from the United Federation of Teachers. I was accepted into The High School of Art and Design, but due to circumstances, attended New Utrecht High School instead. Throughout my teen years, I had a pre-Etsy type of business designing and airbrushing sweatshirts with the pop culture of the 80’s, that my cousin then sold in her hair salon for me. Nothing went with big hair better than an airbrushed, personalized sweatshirt! 

When I was 19, I decided to concentrate on the art of photography, and focused on getting my Studio Art/Photography degree from Brooklyn College. In between and around semesters, while working full time in an art supply store in Brooklyn, I married my high school sweetheart, Anthony Talamo, in 1990. We were the proud parents of our first daughter in 1991.

Around that same time, I also began using my talent as my profession again when I began working for the company that videotaped my wedding, Personal Touch Video. Knowing I was a struggling art student who was good behind a camera, they hired me to compose some of the shots, as well as assist, and sometimes direct, the videographer. Occasionally, I did get behind the video camera, but in those days, the camera was way too heavy for me to handhold! It was hard then to contribute to the "cinema verity" style of documentation we strove for, with the exception of a tap on the shoulder and a point of a finger! 

Meanwhile, during those 10 years, we were struggling to grow our family. After the birth of our second daughter in 1997, I decided I needed to be closer to home then traveling the boroughs, spending weekends videotaping weddings and weekdays learning to edit them. I opened Creative Campus in 1998, and luckily, it was a huge success from the beginning, and I was able to spend more time with my girls. 

After 5 whirlwind years of crafts, dress up parties, puppet shows, face painting, and endless art projects, I grew restless as my family grew bigger. When my son was diagnosed with autism at 18 months, I needed to make a big shift in my life and returned to my original love when photography went digital. 

In 2003, I converted Creative Campus into my own photo studio, Custom Digital Images, here in Staten Island, New York. By 2016, I was well known as MaryAnn Talamo M.Photog.M.Artist.,Cr., an award winning, nationally recognized photographer, specializing in portraits of newborns, babies and children. 

Among my numerous photographic print and imaging competition awards, I was one of the first photographers in the country to receive a Canon Par Excellence Award in 2009. Of my last 32 competition prints, 26 of them have received a merit of excellence, and my portraits have been featured in both the Loan Collection and the Showcase Books of The Professional Photographers of America. In December 2014, I was published in Professional Photographer Magazine, a personal milestone I only ever dreamed could happen.

Unfortunately, 2014 was also a year that my health took a turn for the worse. Like 23 million other lucky Americans, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder in 2008. I plugged along until the disorder made such devastating systemic changes to my body that running a fast paced, busy photo studio as a single entity became virtually impossible, and I had to take a medical respite.

I'm happy to announce my return to work! In the interim, I decided to come back not only to photography, but to focus most on my passion to teaching, both fine art and photography. We've converted our photo studio into an art studio/ classroom, fully stocked with all types of art supplies I've learned to use over the years, while offering on location and special occasion photo sessions to past clients. 

So, I hope you'll continue with me on my current journey, where art is a labor of love, a means for growth, and an avenue for healing the soul, for both me and the clients I'm honored to serve.

Yours truly, MaryAnn