New York–based photographer Serena Nappa grew up in a family of painters, so, in an intriguing parallel, she enjoys incorporating processes like collaging into her photography that give her the creative control of a painter. “I like a lot of manipulation in my work,” she says. “Collages became so important to me because I like having a process with my work, where I can put things together, take things away and take some time playing with my work—instead of taking a photo and being done with it.” After her initial photography hobby blossomed into a full-fledged passion when she entered high school, Nappa went on to attend the advertising photography program at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she discovered how she could use technical skills and photo collage to fuel her artistry. “The creativity of the advertising photography program pulled me in, and I learned that I loved creating images and playing in the studio rather than documenting life with my camera,” she explains. “When I took a 2-D design class, I fell in love with making collages, and I made them for every assignment afterwards in any class I could.” Inspired by impressionist painters such as Joaquín Sorolla and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as the paintings and photo collages of David Hockney, she continues to work with physical media to create for the unexpected results it can reveal. “It’s a little too easy for me to hit the undo button in Photoshop when working digitally,” Nappa says. “I’ve learned it’s better to trust the process and develop through your ‘mistakes’ rather than play it safe.”