GEORGE:

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts is still where George calls home for himself and his own family.

Through his mother’s passion for the arts and his father’s camera, George fell in love with photography at a very young age. Many years and many cameras later, George began to explore and document his love for New England through his stock photography work as a hobby.

After obtaining his Associates Degree in Electrical Engineer George continued on to UMass Lowell to work toward a Plastics Engineering degree.

It took two years for him to realize that he wasn’t going to cut it in academia but continued his work the plastics field during the day.

Georges first exposure to theater photography (sorry…no pun intended) is when his mother called on him to document her costuming work at the Concord Players and Northeastern University.

It was here that George first fell in love with the creation of imagery in this dramatically lit and emotional charged environment. Though technically challenging, George continued to learn how to improve his theater imagery on film by utilizing special shooting and film processing techniques. With high upfront costs, slow turnaround times and marginal quality, live theater photography was a tough nut to crack as a business but, changes where coming soon that would change everything…

Upon meeting Gail for the first time in the summer of 1993 George immediately started handing over his checks to her. She was George’s bank teller! They were basically partners in life and photography from then on out.

With his days now dedicated to his work in Manufacturing as a Plastics Processing Technician, George continued his education but this time he turned to his passion and attended night classes at the New England School of Photography (NESOP) and Middlesex Community College (MCC).

Still dominated by the medium of slide film, George’s stock photography work started to take flight in 1996 when he got his first full page publication in Cape Cod Life Magazine. Building off this momentum, he founded ASA Photographic as a formal place to market his stock photography work.

The advent of digital photography was a game changer to his work in theater imagery and George purchased his first digital camera in 2001...the Nikon D1x. He quickly took full advantage of being able to display finish images and products, in some cases, within the same day with levels of quality never before possible on film.. The power of RAW image processing allowed for never before seen control of in darkest of scenes with a mix of lighting temperatures.

Westford Academy was the first school to become part of the ASA Theater family in 2003 and the place where you can still find his work gracing the halls of the main lobby.

As more and more local schools became part of the ASA Theater Family, Gail recognized the missed opportunities and potential to expand ASA’s services into the High School Senior portrait market.

Though capturing their portrait work primarily on location, it wasn’t until 2008 that ASA found a home in the historic Faulkner Mills in North Billerica. It was here that the two of them took their portrait work to a new level and became one of the area’s premier Senior Portrait artists and routinely merited at the Professional Photographers Association of Massachusetts (PPAM) print competition using their clients work.

Soon after, both George and Gail started serving on the PPAM board while also hosting and teaching photography workshops out of the ASA studio.

At the peak of his theater photography career, the ASA Theater Family grew to incorporate some 30 school theater programs and organizations along with photographing Westford Summer School for the Performing Arts (SSPA), Weston Drama Workshops (WDW) and still continue to serve as the primary photographers for the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG)

While in the process working toward their goal of making the studio a full time job, life decided that it was time to speed things up a bit and handed out that inspiration in the form of George being laid-off from his Assistant Engineering position in 2014.

It was from this point of their life and from within the walls of ASA Studios that George and Gail created Lucozzi Portraits in 2016. The goal for Lucozzi Portraits is to celebrate relationships and offer high end finished and framed family portraiture while making a commitment to grow this new brand of the studio through social responsibility by donating goods and services in support of local charities and non-profits.

And the story continues…