Education
Monica Cipnic earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government, English and History from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, and a Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts from New York University.
Monica Cipnic earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government, English and History from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, and a Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts from New York University.
Monica has been involved in so many aspects of the photographic business over the past decades.
Most recently she was the Director of the Workshops@Adorama in New York City, where she created and produced an extensive series of photographic workshops, seminars, and special events for Adorama, one of the top national photographic retailers, at their Flatiron District building location. During the Workshops that began in 2007 and ran through 2013, over 15,000 people attended them, and participants traveled from 44 states and over 45 countries around the world.
Monica was the Picture Editor for Popular Photography+Imaging, Camera Arts, and Photography Annual magazines, and has written for American Photo (web and print), American Photo on Campus, ASMP Bulletin, Popular Photography+Imaging, The Digital Journalist.org, Portfolio Magazine (Edinburgh), Urban Desires (webzine), Photography Annual, and Contemporary Photographers (St. Martin’s Press).
Camera Arts won the National Magazine Award for ‘Best Use of Photographs’ while she was the Picture Editor. And Monica won numerous Art Directors’ Club awards for her writing and photo editing for Popular Photography and Photography Annual for over 12 years.
A favorite article that appeared on the American Photo web site was an interview with Eric Meola on his photographing Bruce Springsteen for the legendary ‘Born to Run’ album cover.
In addition to a stint as the managing editor of The Image Bank, an international photographic stock agency, Monica worked in the television and film business in New York, California, Canada, Italy, and Mexico, and television commercial production in New York City. She was co-producer on the award winning documentary film, ‘Mayaland’, where she collaborated with her late brother, filmmaker and photographer, Dennis Cipnic.
Monica has lectured and reviewed portfolios at the Santa Fe Photo Workshops (where she was on the Board of Advisors), Beijing Film Academy (China), Center (formerly the Santa Fe Center for Photography), New York University, Palm Beach Workshops, Long Island University (Brooklyn), FotoFest (Houston), The Photographer’s Gallery (London), School of Visual Arts (NY), University of Texas at Austin, Parsons School of Design, New School University, Maine Photo Workshops, Portfolio Gallery (Edinburgh), Australian Centre of Photography (Sydney), Il Diaframma (Milan), and the Publishing Workshop at the Friends of Photography (CA) among others.
During her first tenure as Picture Editor at Popular Photography magazine, Monica established the Popular Photography Photo Gallery, showing a wide variety of photography that ranged from a retrospective of a woman photojournalist’s experiences during the Vietnam War, to one of the first group shows of Chinese photography in the US, to experimental photography, to shows where the participants had mastered the craft of photography while overcoming physical challenges, substance abuse and other obstacles and in doing so had improved the quality of their lives.
Monica has traveled extensively both nationally and internationally to meet with photographers, gallery owners, and museum curators to discuss their photographs and privately view their holdings, for research purposes and publication. A selection of the museums included: J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles, National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum (London), The Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC), Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Australian National Gallery (Canberra), Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), Vancouver Art Gallery (Canada), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), The Gernsheim Collection, University of Texas (Austin), and The George Eastman House (Rochester NY).
And since receiving a Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts from New York University (2005), Monica has conducted photographic appraisal inspections of major photographic collections, in conjunction with one of the top independent fine-art photographic appraisal firms based in Florida and New York.
Quotes from others about the person
Steven Hirsch: "There are few people in the photography business that understand more about images and photography than Monica. A visionary that has probably published more photographs as a photo editor than most people have shot in their cameras in their lifetime. And as an educator understands what people want to know about photography and how to put classes together to get them skills. A total professional."