The best way to describe Monica Agosta's photography is love at first sight - whether it
was the first time she saw an Ansel Adams image or the excitement she felt when she
received her first camera for free after mailing in several Bazooka gum wrappers at age
eight - love is infused in her artistry.

Agosta worked as a photo assistant for the Associated Press in Manhattan during the
news service's 150th anniversary in 1998. She also served as a photo assistant at
Gannett's Journal News, during it's "birth" that same year and had some of her work
published weekly in the gardening section of the paper. In 1991, she interned at
Eyewitness News, WABC-TV on the assignment desk and learned the video production
process, skill that added to the depth of her photography. Agosta received her degree in
Radio/Television production at the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1991.

Although mainly self-taught, she received instruction in 2009 in NYC with Saul Melnick,
in 2008 with Bobbi Lane and David H. Wells commercial, travel and stock photographers,
in 2006 at The Maine Photographic Workshops with Ira Block, a National Geographic
photographer, in 1997 at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan with Maggie
Steber, a documentary photographer, and a photojournalism class with Yva Momatiuk of
National Geographic at SUNY - New Paltz in 1990.

Agosta has also served on juries and panels and participated in several juried group and
solo shows of her work at various Art Councils, schools, offices, libraries, galleries and
businesses both on Long Island and New York City.

Agosta has won numerous awards for her work. In 2009 she received 1st place in Music and
3rd place in the Pets categories from Lifetouch National School Studios contest. She was a
finalist in the International Library of Photography for her "Badlands" image she shot in
2007 driving cross-country. "Badlands" has also won an award from PhotoLaureates.com for
composition. In 2007 she received 1st Place in Landscape and 3rd Place in Water categories
from Lifetouch National School Studios contest.

She was a finalist in the 1997 spring photography contest sponsored by Photographer's
Forum. Her photo entitled "Catch the Wave" which depicted a surfer from Huntington Beach,
California on a wild ride, was ranked in the top 5% of 32,000 entries and appeared in a book
called The Best of Photography Annual:1997. While she was a member of the Westchester
Professional Photographer's Association in 1997, she won a number of merit awards recognizing her work with outdoor photography. She was a semi-finalist for the International Library of Photography Photo Contest in 2001. Her photo entitled "Uh-0" shows her son Vinnie,
then a curious one year old child, caught in the act of making a mess with birthday cake all
over his face.

Her late father, Vincent Agosta, who died in 1991 at age 58, documented the lives of all his
thirteen children through an annual slide show. Agosta is a free-lance photographer who resides with her family on Long Island, New York.