Photographic exhibition featuring poignant portraits of New York women

in 2008, Patricia Burmicky moved to New York City from Venezuela with dreams of becoming a photographer.

She took classes at the International Center of Photography and within a few years opened her own school, PhotoUno, in Midtown.

“As an immigrant who came here and pursued my dream of being a teacher and a photographer, I wanted to inspire young girls through images,” Burmicky, who is Venezuelan and Slovenian, told The Post.

In 2020 she launched “The woman I will become.” She photographed New York women who inspired her with their tenacity and ability to assert themselves in their chosen fields.

“I started photographing women who had incredible stories,” she says, adding that her images have a “dreamy, layered look” and take up to eight hours to produce as she photographs each layer and edited with Photoshop.

The series features a Japanese pianist who played at Carnegie Hall, a sustainable fashionista from Uganda, and a soprano from small-town Indiana. She only addresses them by their first names because she said “it’s less formal.”

In addition, she started a photo contest for female photographers in Venezuela to capture the same thing. At the end of International Women’s Month, Burmicky will present her work and the results of the competition, both of which will be exhibited at the Blue Gallery in Midtown through March 25.

Here are some of Burmicky’s intricate images.

The soprano

Monica, who hails from a small town in Indiana, knew she wanted to be a singer after hearing her sister perform Mozart’s Laudate Dominum.

“She made her way from Indiana to NYC and sang for the Metropolitan Opera,” Burmicky said of her theme.

The makeup artist

Adiee, who is from the Dominican Republic, worked with Burmicky on her series, helping to embellish her subjects. But then she became one.

“She really started out in mental health counseling and realized that her true passion was getting into makeup, and later during the pandemic she decided to go back to school and be a cosmetologist,” Burmicky said.

The pianist

“Junko came from a small town in Japan and came here to study with a composer,” Burmicky said, adding that Junko was one of her early subjects. “She hired me to photograph her performance at Carnegie Hall.”

But she quickly wowed Burmicky with her story of immigration and also got the photographer involved in other subjects.

The sustainable fashionista

Hailing from Uganda, Paula had a different relationship with clothing: making her own and recycling fabrics. After moving to the US, she was shocked by how wasteful our relationship with consumerism and fast fashion is.

“It tries to educate and promote slow, vintage and second-hand fashion,” Burmicky said.

The flutist

“She was such an enthusiastic student of photography,” Burmicky said of her student.

But while the photographer watched “The wonderful Mrs. Maisel‘ she caught Tara in a scene where she was playing the flute. “I didn’t know she was also a talented flutist.”

In fact, Tara is a two-time Grammy nominee with an Avery Fisher Career Grant.