{"id":1344,"date":"2021-03-25T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2025-06-27T15:31:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:31:55","slug":"flordalis-espinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/?p=1344","title":{"rendered":"Flordalis Espinal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thursday, March 25, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the finishing up the Harlem Renaissance unit I knew I had go see New York one day. I had made the city a bucket lister not only so I could walk the same streets Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes once had, but also because of how mesmerized I became with documentaries and films about Black New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original clich\u00e9 I was sold about New York reminded me of Broadway, shopping, and crowds. But the culture of Black New York carried much more substance. The fashion, the music, the night clubs, and even the slang was IT then. Every black artist seemed to exist in a way that set trends for the rest of America. Today, not much has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day of the interview I woke up in SoHo wrapped in fluffy white hotel bedding in a dimly lit hotel room. It was my first morning in the city and the faint “whoosh” sound of tires driving over the wet pavement reminded me how much it had rained yesterday evening. Flordalis<\/a>, also known as Dalis, and I solidified plans for her to meet me at the hotel later that morning. She sent the “I’m here” text 4 minutes before eleven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Flordalis Espinal March of 2021 shot by hanoncam<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the film photographer in person reminded me of the first time I had found her Instagram page from a post made by Monad Agency<\/a>. She had a head full of soft curls, clear olive skin, big brown eyes, and an even bigger smile. She was shorter than I expected her to be, but it didn’t at all affect how much presence she carried into the room. On my way back from meeting her at the front lobby, she told me a little more about her bus ride and the five boroughs of New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound of the elevator chime halted our conversation and we walked out onto the rooftop lounge of the hotel. I had already set up my laptop, speaker, and notepad on a wooden table by the window in preparation for the interview. Once we were both seated I thanked her again for coming and pressed the red voice-record button on my iPhone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

han : Give us a little opener about who you are and where you're from.<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Flordalis and her work displayed on her Instagram page<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

han : When was the first time you picked up a camera?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The first time I picked up a camera…” she repeated carefully as she tapped her hand on the table behind each word. “The first time I picked up a camera was when I was about ten or eleven. My mom always had a lot of disposable cameras that she would use to take pictures of everything, like birthdays and graduations. And when we moved to a different area of the Bronx she bought this little point and shoot and I was so curious about it. When the roll was almost out I used to go around the house and take pictures with whatever was left.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I smiled at the Dalis’s memory of her childhood introduction to cameras, especially because of how similar it was to my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I actually just recently developed some of those rolls about a year ago and there were pictures of me in the Dominican Republic, of pictures that I took of my grandma, and also random shit because some of them got water damaged and came out blank. So yeah that was like the first time I picked up a camera.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

han : When did you start sharing your photography online?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
video of Flordalis captured by Monadagency<\/a> 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

han : Why did you restart your photography journey with film photography two years ago?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As corny as it sounds, I feel like I’m an old soul. I’ve always gravitated more towards the root of things and learning about the entire process. And I’ve noticed, once you tap into that process of making something from scratch, you’re more intentional with it. Just like the difference between making a cake from scratch and just buying the cake mix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So when I started with film photography thats what really taught me how to use a camera. I bought a camera from the 1940s I believe. It was a Yashica A<\/a> from Depop for $250. I later found out that camera is not really worth that much. But I bought that one because I wanted a twin reflect camera like Vivian Maier<\/a>. The camera is fully manual, there’s no battery or light meter so I really had to learn how to use it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve noticed once you tap into that process of making something from scratch, you’re more intentional with it.”<\/p>– Flordalis Espinal<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

han : What kind of personal development did you notice as you started shooting others, within yourself?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m working on being a better photographer, and just enjoying the process”<\/p>– Flordalis Espinal<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

han : How did you come up with the idea for Girls Who Shoot?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

mentioned : Paloma<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Flordalis Espinal on Hudson St., SOHO New York<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

han: Who is @OnLunchBreak?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“OnLunchBreak<\/a> is a photographer who I had been following for awhile. He put me on way back in like 2015 when I was just starting off in photography and I didn’t even have a real camera. But he believed in my work he was like: ‘Yo my homegirl works at Puma and she needs someone extra to send sneakers to.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And they sent me sneakers and I was like whaat?” she exclaimed like she had gotten the news today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Its so crazy how people can see the potential in you even when you don’t in yourself yet…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pauses as if taking a moment to be grateful. “That was off topic a little bit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But the reason why I was really inspired by him was because he wasn’t a gatekeeper, you know? All the things he knew he would let people know and put people on. He still to this day has resources on his Instagram with a budget list for videographers that you can tweak if you’re a photographer or artist. He also has mockup presentations that you can also use for guidance.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thats the plan with Girls Who Shoot, we want to give girls resources so they can become better artist, to build a community, to collaborate and not compete and form genuine connections. It’s important to have a safe space because photography and the art world is so male dominated.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

han : What are the differences of shooting with a man verses shooting with a woman?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Girls Who Shoot’s Flordalis for BetterinPrintMag<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

han : How can a photographer make sure they are prioritizing their model's comfortability?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
120 film shot by New York based photographer and film developer Paloma<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

han: Tell me about some of the women in Girls Who Shoot \/\/ moments with Ari.Analog<\/a> and ___Paloma___<\/a><\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s my soul sister”<\/p>Flordalis Espinal<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

han : Do you think your relationship with your partner has had an influence on your creative process?<\/kbd><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flordalis Espinal’s Personal Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls Who Shoot Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Film Photographer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bip-journals","category-new-york"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/000757320012-scaled-e1618518543568.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":99,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2248,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions\/2248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterinprint.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}