Andrea Modica; Real Indins
In 2002 I was commissioned by the American Indian College Fund to photograph people
who were closely associated with the 32 tribal colleges for Native Americans in 12 western
states. The project was underwritten by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundatio. The
purpose was to celebrate the diversity of Native American peoples and to challenge
assumptions and prejudices about these extraor
dinarily rich cultures
The photographs in this collection are the result of eight months of intensive work traveling
around the United States, meeting the subjects, getting to know them and in some
serendipitous way eliciting an aspect of their personality that informs not only the
photograph, or some aspect of Native American culture, but also the culture of photogtaphy
as well. Many of the loci, the settings, were places imbued with the presence of Native
Atmerican peoples or special to families that had rooted there over generations. These
photographs ultimately became the core of a book published at the behest of the American
Indian College Fund that poignantly details the nuances of their culture.
I am indebted to the American Indian College Fund for providing access to a pcople, to
allowing me to learn and to share with them aspects of their civilization
Andrea Modca
Andrea Modica lives in Manitou Springs, Colorado and works as a photographer. After
receiving her MFA from Yale School of Art in 1985 she was a professor in the Art
Department at the State Universty of New York at Oneonta for 13 years. Her work is
included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: The
Whitney Museum of Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York;
the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. The National Museum of American Art
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: The San Francisco Museum of Modem Art, San
Francisco, CA and the B
e Nationale, Paris France
Modica's photographs hare been exhibited extensively and published in four monographs:
inor Leagwe (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993) Tread! (Chronicle, 199);man Reng
Nazracli, 2001), and Real Indians Melcher Media, 2002). She is represented by the Edwynn
Houk Gallery in New York and the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago.
Her work has been generously supported by the following grants and awards: The New
York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship: The New York State Council of the Arts
Decentralization Grant; The John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship; the Aaron Siskind
Foundation Individual Photographers Grant: The Fulbright-Hays Rescarch Grant, the Light
Work Artist-in-Residence program; the Center for Photography at Woodstock
Photographer's Fund Award, and the Colorado Council of the Arts Fellowship
