Photographer in New York City

Before Roberta Fineberg was an award-winning photographer, author, and teaching artist, she was a newbie, giddy with excitement when the Saturday Review published one of her photographs. Before long, her work appeared in French magazines and on book jackets for publishers such as Harcourt and Simon & Schuster. Her love of pets lead to the writing of her first book, City Riders, a story in words and pictures about three teenage girls in New York City and their shared love of horses, published by Macmillan.

When she isn't snapping dramatic portraits or offering her skills to businesses in need of creative advertising, she chronicles events and cultural milestones in her signature candid, emotional style. Roberta also shares her experience and skill with others during NYC Spark your Creativity workshops, designed to get students off the beaten path, looking at the city in a new light to boost their creativity. Today, Roberta's photography can be found in France at the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand, as well as in the United States and Russia. When she isn't snapping dramatic portraits or offering her skills to businesses in need of creative advertising, she chronicles events and cultural milestones in her signature candid, emotional style.

Roberta also shares her experience and skill with others by teaching workshops and classes. She can often be seen roaming the streets of New York, hopping from island to island as she encourages her pupils to see photography as an adventure in experimentation. As part of her educational outreach, Roberta helps struggling middle-school students and adults who speak English as a second language to improve their linguistic repertoire through photographic excursions and friendly conversations.

Once every three years, the curators at New York's International Center of Photography set out on a mission to encapsulate the world. They scour every corner of the globe to collect the most interesting video and photography. The end result is an exhibit that reveals the Earth at present—its economic conditions, political instabilities, and social mores. The museum's other gallery spaces surround their visitors in works from the 19th century to modern day, offering windows into every era since Santa invented cameras as a new Christmas toy. These ever-changing exhibits showcase everything from evolving fashions to countries in the midst of full-blown revolution.

Hidden behind theses photographs' imagery, lies the minds of brilliant visual artists. Some of these masters speak at the The Photographers Lecture Series, a staple of the museum's research center since 1974. During these events, distinguished photographers discuss their work and how photography fits into the worlds of art, fashion, and journalism. The ICP's Library delves into these worlds even further with thousands of photobooks, periodicals, and digital files.

ICP's faculty also nurtures emerging artists. Together, they lead more than 400 continuing education courses, exploring areas such as digital photography and video. And for the most serious students, they offer a one-year certificate program and an MFA program.

After graduating from college, Lucia Rollow started looking for a place to print her photos in New York, only to be put off by expensive and snobbish darkrooms. So she began her own operation in a storage unit in the basement of an apartment building. Unable to tolerate solitary confinement for long, Lucia opened it up to other photographers and dubbed the space Bushwick Community Darkroom. Allison Putnam was among the influx of regular visitors, and she eventually became Lucia's cohort in the communal photography effort. The two share a passion for old-school photo printing, despite the availability of apps that impart vintage effects digitally. As Lucia told Gloria Dawson of The Brooklyn Ink, “The darkroom was the reason I fell in love with photography, just the idea that you could capture this image and replicate it and watch it appear seemingly out of nowhere is incredible.”

Meanwhile, photographers Vanessa Gill and Cheryl Arent were working on a communal-darkroom venture similar to Lucia's, and in 2012 the duos joined forces to crowdsource funding for a real studio space. Today, all four ladies work out of their newly opened studio, where they keep film photography alive with professional printing equipment and cryogenic storage tanks for old cameras. With the support of the community, this quartet teaches classes and provides film photographers with affordable access to resources such as enlargers and a Fujimoto CP51 color processor.

Husband-wife duo Mark and Marina Frost know what it's like. They saw each other from the opposite ends of a crowded room. They felt a pull toward one another. They knew. Since then, they've been committed not only to one another, but to helping other couples document their own stories through gorgeous wedding and engagement photography. Their expertly lit and strikingly composed shots capture moments big and little: a boutonniere waiting to be pinned on a lapel, the laughter of giddy bridesmaids, newlyweds clasping hands on the dance floor.

Their excitement for each couple and attention to the little things has earned them accolades such as The Knot's Best of Weddings award and Wedding Wire's Bride's Choice award, each for three years running. In addition to wedding-related photography, they also have a photo-booth-rental service for couples who want to remember what their guests looked like 50 years later, when they'll be uploaded to flying cars—the license of which will still only be earned after a four-hour wait at the DMV.

Having enlightened more than 4,000 novice photographers to date and seen his work appear in the New York Times and GQ, JP Pullos has credentials that broadcast his photo capability. Drawing from this wealth of experience, JP instructs students of the photo arts on the finer points of their camera, whether that be a DSLR or compact point-and-shoot. Through an intuitive teaching method and learning-by-doing, pupils gain confidence in how to frame stunning portraits, capture images in any lighting conditions, and optimally use their camera's features.

To achieve a style that it describes as "fine-art photojournalism," the boutique studio employs an award-winning team of photographers and videographers. Instead of churning out the usual stand-and-smile wedding shots, Funico's crew focuses on capturing the little moments, the candid moments of laughter and tears, the subtle gestures of a deep, abiding love, and the living, breathing human rhythm of your celebration (see here for examples of recent engagement photos). After your shoot, you'll receive a webpage with a slide show set to music and an online gallery to share with loved ones, plus two high-resolution images of your choice that you can treasure forever and reprint as often as you like—use them for save-the-dates, wedding invitations, or to blow up for life-sized cardboard cutouts of yourself for your living room. To reserve your slot, make sure to contact Funico Studios at least seven days ahead of time.