ABOUT
Joyce Culver is a portrait and documentary photographer living in Greenport, NY. Prior to the pandemic, she resided in NYC, free-lanced and taught photography for over 40 years. She holds a B.S. in Art from SUNY College at Buffalo, the Institute delʼArte Siena, Italy, and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Culver made her professional debut in the book and exhibition, "The New Color Photography" in 1977 with her color studies of nature in the landscape titled "The Secret Soul of Things". Based on painter Wassily Kandinsky’s belief that things possess a “secret soul” which an artist seeks to reveal, it was this connection to nature and what one is drawn to, that led to her photographic work.
Moving to NYC in 1979, Joyce started making photographs as social and political statements beginning with her portraits of lesbian and gay couples in the 80’s and 90’s. Exploring power and dialog in relationships, acknowledging how love and commitment might look in this community, was her focus.
Later on, her work "A Change of Mind" explores feelings about her father's late onset Alzheimer's disease and consequences on her mother and sister. When her father passed away in 1999 she decided that these personal photographs needed to be seen in a larger context.
Commercial work on-stage, and candid "green room" portraits of celebrities, were shot exclusively for the 92Y. For over 15 years Joyce captured hundreds of creative talented entertainers, writers and people in the film world in spontaneous and revealing moments. Culver's portrait profiles lead each chapter of selected 18 fashion designers who discuss their careers with Fern Mallis in the 2015 book "Fashion Icons" published by Rizzoli.
Presently, Joyce enjoys country living in Greenport, NY, a seaport village on the North Fork of Long Island. With Charles, her adopted South American parakeet, she enjoys watching the robins taking baths in the blue bird feeder, and how the light change as the days go by. Happy to be coming out of the pandemic she looks forward to working on her book ideas, including "The Lulu Diaries", about her former beloved pet Lulu, a Senegal parrot who in 2014 flew away after 17 years of companionship.
Joyce’s photographs are in the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, MOMA, and in numerous private collections. She has received artist grants from the New York Foundation of the Arts to support her projects. Publications include: The Arc of Love, Butch/Femme, Exploring Color Photography, Forbes, Fortune, Newsday, New York, The New York Times, Art News. Clients include: The 92nd Street Y, Businessweek, Stem Cell Foundation, Allen & Co., The Jewish Theological Seminary, The New York Times, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Cornell University and others. Group and one-person exhibitions include: Dan Cooney Gallery, Albuquerque Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery, White Columns, Everson Museum of Art, and the International Center of Photography, among others.
Culver taught undergraduate classes at the School of Visual Arts and at Nassau Community College for over 30 years, and is now retired.
Malala at the 92Y NYC 2013