"My mission is to empower women to tell their brand story with exceptional photography that showcases their passion and their true essence."
Gina Cinardo is an enthusiastic photographer that specializes in personal branding, lifestyle, editorial photography, and beauty.
Gina's effervescent spirit makes people very comfortable. Her clients always tell her they have so much fun when they are being photographed.
What Gina is most passionate about, is capturing a person's authentic essence. One's true spirit makes one shine. This essence is so beautiful! It causes the viewer to truly see the person whether the images are for personal display or to grab the attention of an audience for advertising.
Gina got her degree in Fine Art Photography and has been doing photography professionally for over 30 years. She is not only a portrait photographer but also a brand strategist and marketing specialist. One of her other specialties and passions is taking clients from having no brand to an effective visual personal brand. Converting a target audience into fans and paying customers.
Gina Cinardo can capture a real and unique perspective of an individual person in a real moment. This is the essence of humanity that we all relate to and empathize with. Gina has a knack for drawing out one's spirit. She just makes people feel very comfortable when being photographed.
I was inspired by my mother, Jinny Cinardo, the artist, and my father, Nick Cinardo, the photographer. My fondest memories growing up consisted of playing dress-up and modeling for a family photoshoot. The entire family, even my brother on some occasions would dress up for the photoshoot. They were always themed and in my pre-teen modeling "career" I was a bar-maid, cowgirl, southern belle, clown, and victorian beauty. The purpose of each photoshoot was so that my Dad could capture pictures that my Mom could paint. Growing up in Los Angeles made this even more fun because Dad was well connected. This means we could utilize the wardrobe department at NBC.
"My fondest memories are being photographed by my father in a ball gown or some random costume we rented from NBC."
When my parents "split up" in the early '80s, my mother moved my brother and me to Arizona. From that point on family bonding with Dad was pretty much over. I'm not sure if I became a photographer because I wanted to follow in his footsteps or just have a reason to connect with him.
After I graduated from college I was commissioned to photograph a men's aftershave called Quarterdek. For several months my father and I collaborated on how I should photograph it. The weekend came and though my Dad was on a camping trip he still managed to check in and see how all the tests were going. This was not so easy in pre-cellphone days. I don't want to elaborate on this tragic story, so to make it brief here is what happened that changed my life forever. Our last conversation the night before the photoshoot was "I'll talk to you on Monday and let you know how it went". That night he died in a car accident coming back from his camping trip. I was in utter shock and yet the next day, under a cloud of tears, I still managed to photograph the project.
I am not even sure why I feel it's important to tell this story but what I do is a huge part of my life and I love it. I guess in some weird way being a working photographer brings me closer to my father. When I focus on the project and what needs to be done to tell the story I hear him and me in a deep discussion trying to decipher the best way to capture it.
