Gourgaud will host photographer’s first exhibit

25-year-old Andrea Castro’s pictures on display from Jan. 5 until Jan. 28.

By: Lacey Lorevec
   A camera bag slung over her shoulder, film tucked into her pockets and her Hasselblad camera hanging on a strap around her neck, 25-year-old Andrea Castro shadows her friends’ children, snapping shots and turning their weekend activities into art, a weekly routine for the past six years.
   "I kind of follow them around with a camera, and we go in the house or outside and I see little things they do and I’ll just say, ‘Don’t move, don’t move,’ " said the West Windsor native, whose photographs will be featured in the Gourgaud Gallery throughout January.
   Other times, Ms. Castro works on her photo series, tentatively titled "Someplace Else," where two Cranbury girls, 12-year-old Rachel Wanat and her 10-year-old sister, Nicole, are the last two people on Earth.
   Ms. Castro, who now lives in Manhattan and studies at The School of Visual Arts, said she prefers to photograph children.
   "They are very complex and they have a lot of layers," she said. "They have a huge range of emotion, even more so than adults. So, I try to get as many layers on film as possible."
   Becoming an artist and photographer has not always been Ms. Castro’s aspiration. In fact, the field didn’t even cross her mind until she took a photography course at Mercer County Community College.
   "I had no idea what I wanted to do and that’s where I kind of found photography," she said. "I never thought about it before until I went there and just took a class for fun and I kind of never looked back after that."
   Now, Ms. Castro, who is preparing to attend graduate school in May, said she feels ready to exhibit her work for the first time in Cranbury.
   "I’m excited about it," she said, adding that some of her photos were in her school’s art shows. "I’m glad it’s in an area where I grew up and I know a lot of people who will be able to come who can’t always come to New York. I’m excited because I’ll be graduating in May. So, I’ll be starting out well."
   She also has plans to publish "Someplace Else," which she said has been a huge project for her and her two models, who are also her godchildren.
   "We were just taking pictures in the woods one day and it just made itself a story, so I’ve been working on it for about a year now and there’s about 100 pictures in the series now," she said.
   Many of the shots that will be featured in the Gourgaud exhibit are of 11-year-old Danielle Rose and her brother and sister, Bradley, 5, and Kira, 7, who are the children of Ms. Castro’s former West Windsor neighbors.
   "I just think children are much more honest," Ms. Castro said. "They don’t have the need to feel beautiful in pictures. They’re not conscious of society’s pressures when taking a picture that the whole world is going to see. And they’re very willing to be modeled constantly because it’s been six years that I’ve been focusing on these two families and they’re always very willing to do it."
   Ms. Castro said she expects to finish "Someplace Else" in the spring and she looks forward to exhibiting more of it over the summer at shows that will feature her work in Manhattan.
   "I just like being able to create any kind of world that you want and everybody takes something different away from it, just being able to create anything and express yourself completely without reserve," she said. "I love being able to do that."
   The exhibit at the Gourgaud Gallery, which, like her series, is titled "Someplace Else," will be on display Jan. 5 through Jan. 28, with a First Friday Reception on Jan. 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. The Gourgaud Gallery is located in Town Hall on North Main Street.