https://t.co/ouJid3fmHx lenscratch:
© Christine Osinski pic.twitter.com/O8dzo9OgNL
— Foto Gaceta (@FotoGaceta) March 7, 2016
Christine Osinski is a versatile artist that took refuge in Staten Island during the early 1980’s because her and her husband were pushed out of Downtown Manhattan due to rising rent. They purchased a home in the New Brighton section of Staten Island and she was inspired by the vernacular architecture and the “Working Class Milieu” that reminded her of her hometown in South Side, Chicago. She found the “unconscious arrangements” that she photographed to be somewhat surreal.
Her newly published book titled Christine Osinski: Summer Days Staten Island has an interview with A.H. Data. In the lengthy correspondence between him and Osinski Data asks her,
After living in Manhattan, how did you adapt to Staten Island?
She replied:
“Staten Island was a perfect place for me at the time. There was no one looking over my shoulder, nobody to impress, no galleries, no art museums, no hipsters, no deadlines. I was free to roam around with no particular place to go.”
I think that describes how many of us feel about Staten Island. Our home away from the epicenter of Manhattan. A place where we can get away from the hustle and bustle for a night and return to the next morning or as freely as we want. However, that doesn’t change the fascinating life and subject matter that intrigued Osinski and many other non-natives. Staten Island will always be a place onto itself.
Buy the book on Amazon, here
Kristin Pitanza is an adjunct lecturer at the College of Staten Island and Saint John’s University in which she teaches writing and education. Her dedication lies with her writing and her students. She facilitates a program through Saint John’s University titled $30,000 degrees in which she helps high school students achieve a four year college career path. She is a native Staten Islander and likes writing about her hometown. Kristin also takes a large interest in adolescent development and literacy while helping students develop writing skills through the scaffolding of grammar to written text. She has helped develop department wide curriculum for her writing courses at the college. She has a Masters Degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University.
