Proposition 8, passed later that year, stymied gay marriage in the state until 2013, when it was declared unconstitutional.Īnd through the ages, Nicoletta has seen the LGBT community’s visibility in the world go from ‘apples’ to ‘oranges’. Nicoletta continued to document San Francisco’s LGBT community through its lows – the 1980s AIDS epidemic to which then-president Ronald Reagan turned a blind eye – and its highs – California granting marriage equality in 2008. His whole thing was, “if you’re not laughing, you’re kind of missing the boat.” And so we had a lot of fun changing the world' Nicoletta said of Milk: ‘I remember him as being a fun-loving guy. Milk appeared in an editorial for California Living magazine. Clown school teachers Ron and Sany Severini are pictured applying makeup. Harvey Milk is pictured in May 1978 as a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus clown for a day. Regarding Milk, Nicoletta said: ‘I think his position was that, you know, a lot of it was daunting and so the only antidote was to kind of keep laughing and have fun while you’re trying to make a better world.’ White committed suicide in 1985, seven years after he killed Milk. His death inspired nationwide vigils that in San Francisco turned violent – particularly after White was acquitted of first-degree murder by reason of insanity, which his attorney argued was caused in part by his Twinkie consumption. But his time was cut short because he was assassinated by his fellow city supervisor, Dan White, in November of that same year. Representing the Castro and its neighbors including the Haight-Ashbury as a City Supervisor, he tried to effect a progressive political agenda affirming LGBT rights. Milk, who opened his Camera Store in 1973, ran for local office three times before being elected and taking office in January 1978.
The charismatic Mayor of Castro Street, Milk, became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. More than 40 years later, that photograph now graces the cover of Nicoletta's soon-to-be-released book, LGBT San Francisco: The Daniel Nicoletta Photographs, published by Reel Art Press. The image struck a chord with people the world over, and Nicoletta was flooded by requests for more copies. He needed to print a minimum of 5,000 cards, on which he had mistakenly put his contact information, and they were sent out into the world.
Nicoletta snapped a picture of them on a doorstep and, wanting to share it with them and their friends, went to develop it into a postcard. One wore a tiger-print top, and the other wore a tank-top. While out taking photographs, he came across two men named Harmodius and Hoti. His first day on the job was that year's Castro Street Fair, and he was sent out to document the celebration. His whole thing was, “if you’re not laughing, you’re kind of missing the boat.” And so we had a lot of fun changing the world.’ ‘I remember him as being a fun-loving guy. ‘Like many people, I enjoyed hanging out there, shooting the breeze with Harvey and Scott,’ Nicoletta said. In 1975, Milk offered the budding photographer a job at the store. The couple operated a camera store, Castro Camera, at 575 Castro Street. You couldn’t really walk down the street to go buy a loaf of bread without a big kissing and hugging session with all the fabulous people you recently had met,’ says Nicoletta, now 62.įrom the time he arrived on San Francisco’s Castro Street at the age of 19 in 1974, Nicoletta has documented life in San Francisco’s large and vibrant LGBT community centered on the Castro District. Soon after he arrived in the neighborhood, which by the late 1960s had become a significant gay village, he became friends with gay rights activist and unofficial mayor of Castro Street, Harvey Milk, and Scott Smith. Walking through Daniel Nicoletta’s Castro neighborhood in the 1970s, it was hard not be overwhelmed by the constant love on display.