Daniel Nicoletta

Daniel Nicoletta (born 1954) is an American photographer, photo journalist and gay rights activist.^[1]

Biography

Born in New York City, Daniel Nicoletta was raised in Utica, NY. In his late teens he left New York to attend San Francisco State University, later graduating from the Bachelor of Arts program. In 1973, when he was 19, he was hired by Harvey Milk and Scott Smith to work at Castro Camera, their camera store on Castro Street.^[2] The three became friends and Nicoletta worked with Milk on his campaigns for political 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 Supervisors, Milk became California's first openly gay elected official. Harvey Milk served for almost eleven months before he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White 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 Station,^[2] 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.^[3]

Daniel Nicoletta's photographs of Milk are featured prominently in the 1985 Academy Award winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Rob Epstein.

In the feature film Milk, a biographical film based on the life of Harvey Milk directed by Gus Van Sant, Daniel Nicoletta is played by Lucas Grabeel. Nicoletta himself plays Carl Carlson and served as the stills photographer on the film.^[4]

Daniel Nicoletta was one of the founders of Frameline Film Festival. In 1977, while still working at Harvey Milk's photography shop, Nicoletta, along with David Waggoner,^[5] Marc Huestis,^[6] 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 Library,^[7] at the Wallach Collection of Fine Prints and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library and at Schwules Museum 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 Riots, the Castro Street Fair, the San Francisco Pride Parade, The Cockettes, Angels of Light, and personalities such as Justin Bond, Loren Cameron, Divine, Mark Ewert, Allen Ginsberg, Harry Hay, G.B. Jones, and Sylvester.

Bibliography

• Flight of Angels, Adrian Brooks (author) and Daniel Nicoletta (photographer) Arsenal Pulp Press ISBN 1551522314
• Gay By The Bay, Susan Stryker and Jim Van Buskirk, Chronicle Books 1996 ISBN 0811811875
• The Mayor of Castro Street, Randy Shilts, St. Martin's Griffin 1988 ISBN 0312019009

Film

• Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant 2008
• That Man: Peter Berlin, directed by Jim Tushinski 2005
• Sex Is, directed by Marc Huestis 1993
• The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Rob Epstein 1984
• Theatrical Collage, directed by Daniel Nicoletta 1976

References

1. ^ Freedman, Marcy (18 November 1998), "Photographic Memory", SF Weekly, http://www.sfweekly.com/1998-11-18/calendar/photographic-memory, retrieved 2008-11-03 
2. ^ ^{a b} McMillan, Dennis (25 May 2006), "Harvey Milk Memorial Plaques Unveiled", San Francisco Bay Times, http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article&article_id=5033, retrieved 2008-11-03 
3. ^ McMillan, Dennis (29 May 2008), "Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Sculpture Unveiled", San Francisco Bay Times, http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article&article_id=8229, retrieved 2008-11-03 
4. ^ Cieply, Michael (16 October 2008), "After 30 Years, A Film Returns to a Harrowing Time in San Francisco", The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/movies/16milk.html, retrieved 2008-11-03 
5. ^ Siegel, Marc (May 1997), "Spilling Out Into Castro Street", Jump Cut (41), http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC41folder/OnCastroStreet.html, retrieved 2008-11-03 
6. ^ Rose, Roger (October 2008), "Frameline: You've Come A Long Way Baby", Cine Source, http://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.php?/site/comments/the_edge_of_heaven/, retrieved 2008-11-03 
7. ^ (PDF) Catalog, San Francisco Public Library, Call Number GLC 36, http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/glc/pdf/Daniel_Nicoletta.pdf, retrieved 2008-11-03 

External links

• Daniel Nicoletta's photographs
• Daniel Nicoletta at the Internet Movie Database
• SF Gate on an exhibition of Daniel Nicoletti's photographs
• Danny Nicoletta Interview

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Name	Nicoletta, Daniel
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Date of birth	1954
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