frankavanzophotography

Frank Avanzo first picked up a camera at age 12 in the 9th grade. It was love at first site so to speak, except he didn’t really think that what he did with his camera was any good. So he moved on do different things. In 1984 he joined the US Army and went to paratrooper school, after graduating went on to the 82nd Airborne Division. Never forgetting how much he loved taking photographs. After leaving the service in 1988 he went on to side jobs that were leading nowhere, so he decided to follow a childhood dream and moved to Orlando Fla. in hopes of working at "Walt Disney World". He applied and was hired to work in the entertainment costuming dept for the "Magic Kingdom". It was here that he learned to work as a costumer for Broadway style shows. He spent 3 years at WDW working all of the stage and convention shows for "Magic Kingdom Costuming". In 1993 he left WDW for New York City and Broadway, and was hired as a full time dresser on "Phantom of the Opera", he worked on the show for over a year and decided to move on once again. He worked as a swing dresser for various Broadway shows and eventually landed a job as an on-set costumer for the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live" and it was here that photography came back into his life. He was asked to be the on-set stylist for the photo shoots for the actors on OLTL. It was here that he got to speak to different photographers about how they approached their photography.

While working at OLTL he was asked to work on the Sylvester Stallone feature film "daylight". Since that first film Frank has worked on over 20 feature films, including "What’s the worst that could happen" with Danny Devito, "The Debtors" with Randy Quaid, "13 Days" with Kevin Costner, and "We Were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson and Sam Elliot. It was on "We Were Soldiers" that Frank and photography met once again, after taking some digital shots of the stunt sequences he was on the set to give a few copies to the stunt coordinator when he ran into a still photographer on the set. He decided to take a chance and show him what he had shot, the photographer turned to him after looking at the photographs and told him "to put his camera away because he would put him out of business" after laughing about it, Frank forgot all about what he had said, until the next day. One of the producers came up to him and asked him about the conversation with the photographer, and he said "sure you mean the 2nd unit stills guy", it was at this time that the producer told him that the photographer was James Nachtwey, and he wasn’t just any photographer but a world renowned war photographer who has won every major photography award there is to win. This changed everything for Frank because if Jim Nachtwey thought his stuff was good well then maybe it’s not just a dream after all.

So in the summer of 2001 Frank enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design for photography. While taking classes at RISD Frank met well known commercial photographer Paul Clancy and they became fast friends, and this friendship turned into a business in October 2002. Frank Avanzo and Paul Clancy now share a studio in Providence RI. Paul continues with his commercial photography and Frank has merged his love of motorcycles with his photography to create a new way of shooting motorcycles. He also has been working on a calendar based on the pin ups of the 1940s. Frank also shoots fashion and artistic portraits. He is currently working on a book of black and white photo art.

Frank’s portrait and fashion style takes from his many years in the entertainment industry and brings a new connection between the photographer and model

BARNETTS MAGAZINE
THE HORSE BACK STREET CHOPPER