StoreJoseph Modica
1946–2018
Joseph Modica (1946-2018) was born in 1946 in Staten Island and attended High School of Music and Art, Staten Island Community College and the School of Visual Arts. In the 1960s, Modica was part of a nascent gay and lesbian community on Staten Island and close with the artist Ned Asta and writer Larry Mitchell (author of The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, illustrated by Asta).
Modica was an avid photographer beginning in the late 1960s, documenting his circle of friends in Staten Island and, after moving to the East Village in the 1970s, the downtown New York club scene. His photographs from the 1980s chronicle spaces such as the Pyramid Club and Danceteria, featuring luminaries Divine, Ethyl Eichelberger, Keith Haring, and John Sex. During this time Modica also worked as a graphic designer and photographed male nudes for the pornographic serial Straight to Hell. Modica's photographs also document New York gay activism and several years of pride parades. After the year 2000, as he suffered from the effects of illness and depression, he turned away from photography and dedicated himself to life drawing, producing hundreds of male figure drawings over the next decade.
An archival collection of Joseph Modica's material is held at the Visual AIDS archive. The finding aid for the collection can be found here.
