Daniel Nicoletta (born 1954) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
, photo journalist and gay rights activist.
Born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, Daniel Nicoletta was raised in Utica, NY. In his late teens he left New York to attend
San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California...
, later graduating from the Bachelor of Arts program. In 1975, when he was 19, he was hired by
Harvey MilkHarvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
and Scott Smith to work at
Castro CameraCastro Camera was a camera store in the Castro District of San Francisco, California, operated by Harvey Milk from 1972 until his assassination in 1978...
, their camera store on
Castro StreetCastro Street may refer to:* Castro Street in The Castro, San Francisco, California* Castro Street , a 1966 short documentary film directed by Bruce Baillie* Castro Street Station, a Muni Metro underground station in San Francisco...
. The three became friends and Nicoletta worked with Milk on his political campaigns for office.
Daniel Nicoletta (born 1954) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
, photo journalist and gay rights activist.
Biography
Born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, Daniel Nicoletta was raised in Utica, NY. In his late teens he left New York to attend
San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California...
, later graduating from the Bachelor of Arts program. In 1975, when he was 19, he was hired by
Harvey MilkHarvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
and Scott Smith to work at
Castro CameraCastro Camera was a camera store in the Castro District of San Francisco, California, operated by Harvey Milk from 1972 until his assassination in 1978...
, their camera store on
Castro StreetCastro Street may refer to:* Castro Street in The Castro, San Francisco, California* Castro Street , a 1966 short documentary film directed by Bruce Baillie* Castro Street Station, a Muni Metro underground station in San Francisco...
. The three became friends and Nicoletta worked with Milk on his political campaigns for office. During this period of time, Nicoletta took many now well-known photographs of Milk. Once Milk was elected to the
San Francisco Board of SupervisorsThe San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body of the City and County of San Francisco, California.- Government and politics:...
, Milk became California's first openly gay elected official. Harvey Milk served for almost eleven months before he and Mayor
George MosconeGeorge Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor...
were assassinatedThe Moscone–Milk assassinations were the killings of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot and killed in San Francisco City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978...
by
Dan WhiteDaniel James "Dan" White was a San Francisco supervisor who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on November 27, 1978, at City Hall. In a controversial verdict that led to the coining of the legal slang "Twinkie defense," White was convicted of the...
at City Hall on November 27, 1978.
After the death of Harvey Milk, Nicoletta worked to keep his memory alive. He was the installation coordinator of the Harvey Milk photographic tribute plaques installed at Harvey Milk Plaza and at the
Castro Street StationCastro Street Station is a Muni Metro station at the intersection of Market Street, Castro Street, and 17th Street in The Castro district of San Francisco, California...
, which featured his photographs as well as those of Marc Cohen, Don Eckert, Jerry Pritikin, Efren Ramirez, Rink, and Leland Toy. He was co-chair of the Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee, and his photograph served as the basis for the bust of Milk that now resides in the rotunda of San Francisco's City Hall.
Daniel Nicoletta's photographs of Milk are featured prominently in the 1985 Academy Award winning documentary
The Times of Harvey MilkThe Times of Harvey Milk is an American documentary film that premiered at The Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and then on November 1, 1984 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco...
, directed by
Rob EpsteinRob Epstein, also credited as Robert P. Epstein is an non-fiction filmmaker, director, producer, writer and editor. Epstein has won two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature for the films The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt...
.
In the feature film
MilkMilk is a 2008 American biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, the film stars Sean Penn as Milk and Josh Brolin as Dan White. The film was...
, a biographical film based on the life of Harvey Milk directed by
Gus Van SantGus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American film director, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and author. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Achievement in Directing for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, and won the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival for his...
, Daniel Nicoletta is played by
Lucas GrabeelLucas Stephen Grabeel is an American actor, singer, songwriter, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Ryan Evans in Disney Channel Original Movie's 2006 High School Musical and its sequels, High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year , and as Ethan...
. Nicoletta himself plays Carl Carlson and served as the stills photographer on the film.
Daniel Nicoletta was one of the founders of
Frameline Film FestivalFrameline is a nonprofit media arts organization that produces the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the oldest film festival devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender programming currently in existence...
. In 1977, while still working at Harvey Milk's photography shop, Nicoletta, along with David Waggoner,
Marc HuestisMarc Huestis is an award winning filmmaker, camp impresario and social activist. He is best known for his motion picture Sex Is... and his in-person tributes/benefit events feting celebrities from Hollywood's Golden Age and cult personas at San Francisco's Castro Theatre.- Early life :Huestis was...
, and others, began film screenings of their Super 8 films, called the
Gay Film Festival of Super 8 Films, which evolved into the yearly festival.
As a photographer, Nicoletta has contributed to a number of films, as well as books and periodicals. His work is archived at the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the
San Francisco Public LibraryThe San Francisco Public Library is a public library system serving the city of San Francisco. Its main library is located in San Francisco's Civic Center, on Larkin Street at Grove....
, at the Wallach Collection of Fine Prints and the Berg Collection at the
New York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is one of the leading public libraries of the world and is one of the United States's most significant research libraries. It is composed of a very large circulating public library system combined with a very large non-lending research library system...
and at
Schwules MuseumThe Schwules Museum is an LGBT museum in Berlin, which was opened in 1985.1984 historians and other scientist made an exhibition Eldorado over gay topics in German Museum in Berlin. First time they showed visitors their works over gay history in Germany...
in Berlin, Germany. His work has documented queer culture throughout the late 1970s into the 2000s and besides his historic photographs of Harvey Milk also include subjects such as the
White Night RiotsThe White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of the lenient sentencing of Dan White, for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, an openly gay San Francisco supervisor. The events took place on the night of May 21, 1979 in San...
, the
Castro Street FairThe Castro Street Fair is a San Francisco LGBT street festival and fair usually held on the first Sunday in October in the Castro neighborhood, the main gay neighborhood and social center in the city. The fair features multiples stages with live entrtainment, DJs, food vendors, community-group...
, the San Francisco Pride Parade,
The CockettesThe Cockettes were a psychedelic drag queen troupe founded by Hibiscus in the late 1960s in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The troupe performed outrageous parodies of show tunes and gained an underground cult following that led to mainstream exposure.In 1971, over differences in...
, Angels of Light, and personalities such as
Justin BondJustin Bond is an American singer-songwriter and performance artist.He is arguably best known for his character, seen as a drag incarnation, Kiki, an aging, alcoholic, and bitter chanteuse known for her raucous and edgy medleys of unusual cover songs...
,
Loren CameronLoren Rex Cameron is an American photographer, author and transsexual activist. His work includes portraiture and self-portraiture which consist of lesbian and transsexual bodies in both clothed and nude form...
, Divine,
Mark EwertMarcus Ewert, previously known as Mark Ewert, is an American writer, actor and director, living in San Francisco.Marcus Ewert began making and appearing in films in the 1990s. He has appeared in the Gus Van Sant short film Four Naked Boys and a Gun, in Sadie Benning's Flat Is Beautiful, and the...
,
Allen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , in which he celebrates fellow members of the Beat Generation and critiques what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States.-Early life and family:Ginsberg was born into...
,
Harry HayHenry "Harry" Hay, Jr. was a teacher, labor advocate, and early leader in the American LGBT rights movement. Drawing on his background in the Communist Party USA, Hay co-founded the Mattachine Society, the first enduring LGBT rights organization in the United States, in 1950...
, G.B. Jones, and Sylvester.
Film
- Milk
Milk is a 2008 American biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, the film stars Sean Penn as Milk and Josh Brolin as Dan White. The film was...
, directed by Gus Van SantGus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American film director, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and author. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Achievement in Directing for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, and won the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival for his...
2008
- That Man: Peter Berlin, directed by Jim Tushinski 2005
- Sex Is, directed by Marc Huestis
Marc Huestis is an award winning filmmaker, camp impresario and social activist. He is best known for his motion picture Sex Is... and his in-person tributes/benefit events feting celebrities from Hollywood's Golden Age and cult personas at San Francisco's Castro Theatre.- Early life :Huestis was...
1993
- The Times of Harvey Milk
The Times of Harvey Milk is an American documentary film that premiered at The Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and then on November 1, 1984 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco...
, directed by Rob Epstein 1985
- Theatrical Collage, directed by Daniel Nicoletta 1976
External links