Andrea Modica (born 1960) is an American photographer and professor of photography at Drexel University. She is known for portrait photography and for her use of platinum printing, created using an 8"x10" large format camera. Modica is the author of many monographs, including Treadwell (1996) and Barbara (2002).

Andrea Modica
Born1960 (1960)
Known forPhotography
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Fulbright-Hays Research Grant
Websitewww.andreamodica.com

Early life and education

edit

Modica was born in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her BFA in Visual Arts and Art History from State University of New York College (SUNY) at Purchase, Purchase, NY in 1982, and earned her MFA in Photography from Yale University in 1985.[citation needed]

Work

edit

Modica's most known work is Treadwell.[1] From 1986 to 2001, she staged and photographed a young girl named Barbara and her family in upstate New York with an 8x10 view camera, following the family from farmhouse to farmhouse in and around the town of Treadwell, New York.[2] Chronicle Books published the work in book form in 1996.[3][4] She continued to photograph Barbara until her death in 2001 from childhood diabetes.[5] The work from the later period of Barbara's life was published by Nazraeli Press in 2004. Nazraeli Press also published Human Being, a series of 19th century human skulls that were unearthed at a mental hospital in Pueblo, Colorado.

As We Wait is a collection of previously unpublished portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and horses curated by Larry Fink in 2015 by Grafiche dell'Artiere , who also published January 1, portraits of Philadelphia Mummers in 2018.

Even before starting the series Best Friends, Modica had been photographing students at a high school in Connecticut, and she noticed that a friend was often present in the background of the photoshoots. She started photographing friends together in other high schools in Philadelphia and Modena, Italy.[6]

For Fountain, Modica documented the Baker Family in Fountain, Colorado for nine years. The family runs a small slaughterhouse. She photographed the inner workings of the farm and the intimate family moments.[7]

Real Indians combines first-person narratives by 37 Native American people with black and white photographic portraits of each person by Modica.[8]

For Minor League, Modica photographed in Oneonta, New York and the New York Yankees' spring-training camp in Florida for a project on young ballplayers in 1993. She photographed the young athletes' anxieties, focusing on the minor league players who were hoping to go up.[9]

Modica photographed and filmed horses in post-operative anesthetic states in Theatrum Equorum published by TIS books in 2022.[10]

Teaching

edit

Modica taught photography at the State University of New York – Oneonta for thirteen years, and has also taught at Princeton University, Parsons School of Design, the State University of New York College at Purchase, and Colorado College.[11] She is currently a professor of photography at Drexel University.[12]

Publications

edit
  • Minor League. Photographers at Work Series. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian. 1993. ISBN 156098290X.
  • Treadwell. San Francisco: Chronicle. 1996. ISBN 0811811182. With an introduction by Maria Morris Hambourg and an essay by Annie Proulx.
  • Human Being. Portland: Nazraeli. 2001. ISBN 1590050061. With a foreword by Modica and "Anthropological Descriptions" by J. Michael Hoffman.
  • Andrea Modica: At The Edge Of Fiction. Light Work. 2001. ISBN 093544520X.
  • Barbara. Portland: Nazraeli, 2002. ISBN 1590050878. With a foreword by Modica. 2002
  • Real Indians. New York: Melcher. 2003. ISBN 0971793514. With an introduction by Sherman Alexie.
  • Fountain. Lunenburg, VT: Stinehour, 2008. With an afterword by Modica.
  • L'Amico del Cuore. Portland: Nazraeli, 2014. ISBN 978-1-59005-405-5.
  • As We Wait. Italy: Grafiche dell'Artiere. 2015. ISBN 978-8887569537. With an introduction by Larry Fink.
  • January 1, Italy: Grafiche dell'Artiere, 2018. ISBN 9788887569568
  • Lentini, Kris Graves Projects, Queens, NY, 2019
  • 2020, TIS books, Brooklyn, NY, 2020. ISBN 9781943146260
  • Theatrum Equorum, TIS books, Brooklyn, NY, 2022. ISBN 9781943146314

Awards

edit

Collections

edit

Modica's work is held in the following permanent collections:

References

edit
  1. ^ "Andrea Modica". International Center of Photography. 31 January 2018.
  2. ^ Hulin, Rachael (11 June 2008). "Words and Pictures: Treadwell". PhotoShelter Blog.
  3. ^ "Andrea Modica - Barbara, Treadwell, 1986-2001". Edwynn Houk Gallery. 2004. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18. Retrieved 2014-05-09.
  4. ^ Modica, Andrea; Proulx, Annie (1996). Treadwell. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-1118-7. OCLC 32855514.
  5. ^ "Andrea Modica: From Treadwell to Fountain". Catherine Edelman Gallery. 2006. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Andrea Modica". Blue Sky Gallery. 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
  7. ^ "Andrea Modica - Fountain". Edwynn Houk Gallery. 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-03-10. Retrieved 2014-05-09.
  8. ^ Modica, Andrea; Alexie, Sherman; Carroll, Rebecca; Brewer, Suzette (9 March 2019). Real Indians: portraits of contemporary Native Americans and America's tribal colleges. Melcher Media. OCLC 53288865 – via Open WorldCat.
  9. ^ Kelly, Jon (19 September 2014). "Derek Jeter, a Yankee Before the Pinstripes". The New York Times.
  10. ^ "Theatrum Equorum / Andrea Modica". TIS books. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  11. ^ "Andrea Modica: Barbara, Treadwell, 1986-2001". Edwynn Houk Gallery. Archived from the original on 29 August 2020.
  12. ^ Gutierrez, Allyssa (4 February 2019). "Photographer Andrea Modica to speak, share expertise with students". The Daily Nebraskan. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  13. ^ "Andrea Modica". Catherine Edelman Gallery. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008.
  14. ^ "Andrea Modica". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  15. ^ "Environmental Art Grant". Anonymous Was A Woman. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  16. ^ "Knight Foundation Awards 2022 Arts + Tech Fellowship to Five Visionary Artists". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  17. ^ "Andrea Modica - MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  18. ^ "Search The Collection: 12 results for Andrea Modica". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  19. ^ "Andrea Modica". whitney.org. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  20. ^ "Andrea Modica - Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
  21. ^ "Modica, Andrea". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2022-07-01.
edit