andrea-modica-catholic-girl-l’artiere Andrea Modica hopes every young photography student reaches a point where the urge to create surpasses the need for academic success. For her, this shift happened in 1984, during graduate school. She compares it to a first kiss—an opportunity that can’t be wasted. After attending Garry Winogrand’s memorial, Modica visited her former high school teacher in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and revisited her old Catholic girls’ school. Overwhelmed by a mix of recognition and fear, she returned often, feeling there was something significant to uncover. Having been a student there just a few years earlier, she had experienced the intense highs and lows of adolescence. That day, she fully committed to her love for photography. This book features her Brooklyn work and images from two New Haven Catholic girls’ schools, all shot with an 8×10 camera and printed in platinum. Influenced by August Sander and Diane Arbus, these early projects sparked Modica’s lifelong obsession with photography. Looking back, she feels she had no choice but to pursue this path, and remains deeply grateful to those who supported her, especially the girls who allowed her to photograph them in 1984.
