Andrea Modica's answer to the question every photographer asks eventually: what's the point? E134

September 24, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

I sat down with Andrea Modica, the ‘Italian Story’ photographer (as well many other books) who has made every photograph since 1980 with an 8x10 view camera and prints all her work herself. Andrea studied with Richard Benson at Yale, teaches photography at Drexel University, and has just published ‘Italian Story’ with L'Artiere, 40 personal years of large format photographs made in and about Italy.

We talked about what makes a good photograph and why complexity matters more than beauty, how the 8x10 camera changes both the pictures and the way people behave in front of it, why she hands her editing and sequencing to people like Larry Fink, who curated her book 'As We Wait', and why she believes photography is a profession that is largely about failure.

Other things we discussed:

Why she left painting and sculpture for the rules of the large format camera
Loading film holders as a grounding ritual inside a process full of unknowns
Doing everything by hand, from developing by inspection to platinum printing, and why she never hires assistants
Teaching analog photography to 18 and 20 year olds who want it
Editing Italian Story from hundreds of negatives down to about 70 photographs
The personal stories inside the book that the viewer will never know
Larry Fink's foreword to As We Wait: sensual love aligned with darkness
Why the print still matters in a world of screens and AI
The myth of the suffering artist, and why trauma alone isn't complex
Living inside the confusion of unfinished work

Andrea has 2 exhibitions showing in New York: Catholic Girl at AMR Art DUMBO, Brooklyn, until 22 October 2026, and Italian Story at the Alice Austen House, Staten Island, until February 2027. Andrea will also be signing books at the L'Artiere table at Paris Photo on Saturday 14 November at 4pm.

See Andrea’s current exhibitions:
https://aliceausten.org/italian_story/
https://www.amrartdumbo.com/

Get the book, Italian Story (L'Artiere):
https://www.lartiere.com/en/prodotto/preorder-italian-story-andrea-modica/
https://www.lartiere.com/en/

Find Andrea on her website and Instagram:
https://www.andreamodica.com/
https://www.instagram.com/andreamodica.photo/

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