CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/22/2018

Playfulness and Pride in 'LGBT: San Francisco'

"Perhaps it is helpful to remember that the majority of the people depicted in Nicoletta’s photographs—especially in the years prior to the digital deluge—did not necessarily grow up surrounded by the kind of imagery found in this book. Everything that they were experiencing—the politics, the love, the parties, the activism, their artistic endeavors, and the community that they were creating—was entirely new. They were making it up as they went along; they weren’t simply mimicking what they had grown up seeing in films and photographs. All the while, Nicoletta was there alongside them, quietly building a sustained practice out of what was essentially a collective enterprise: the life and times around him. Ultimately, his photographs defy the bounds of hierarchical genres by being situated within a much larger and more important framework. Their value lies in their inerrant service to the history of the LGBT movement in 20th century America; forming an invaluable chronicle of a specific time and place. And, most especially: the people who created it." – Chuck Mobley, LGBT: San Francisco