Joseph Cuiccio is a self-taught photographer, digital retoucher and artist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and has recently taken up part time residence in Louisville, Ky. He does a variety of photography and digital imaging work in both NYC and Louisville. Your contact is encouraged. Feel free to contact Joseph with any questions or comments regarding any of the work seen on this website.

Photography

Joseph was introduced to photography at an early age by his older brother Michael, who is himself a master photographer with more than 30 years of professional experience. Michael’s work may be viewed by visiting www.mcuiccio.com.

While attending The School of Visual Arts for photography, Michael often used Joseph as the subject of his various assignments. And in turn, Joseph quickly learned how to handle and work Michael’s Nikon F2 camera, how to load film and spent many hours in the darkroom observing his brother as he mixed chemicals, made prints and fine-tuned his art. Joseph soon took possession of that Nikon camera and thus began a passionate hobby.

And a hobby it remained until 1996 when Joseph took a job offer managing a busy headshot studio in midtown Manhattan. Not thinking much of the in-house photographer’s talents, Joseph decided to practice taking his own headshots and eventually took over the position. And in 1999, Joseph shelved his beloved F2 for the first digital SLR – The Nikon D1.

In addition to headshot work, Joseph started doing wedding and event photography after shooting a friend’s wedding. He realized he was good at it and actually enjoyed the work and interacting with large groups of people. Thus began the official launch of his freelance photography endeavors and hasn’t looked back since. He shuttles back and forth between NYC and Louisville, where he has family and a newly launched photography and digital imaging studio.


Retouching

It was also while managing the photo studio that Joseph was introduced to digital retouching. He quickly learned how to use Photoshop. His keen sense of how images should look and be composed along with his proficiency in computers and creative ingenuity made him a natural. He was soon juggling between studio manager, photographer and retoucher. He wanted to do retouching full time but the demands of studio manager wouldn’t allow it and the studio owner couldn’t pay him his manager’s salary to do only retouching. So in 2000, he accepted a job offer from Scholastic Publishers in their digital imaging department as a full time staff retoucher while continuing to develop his freelance business. He left Scholastic in February 2008 to pursue his freelance career full time.



Digital Art

It’s only natural that Joseph would be a digital artist. Not blessed with artistic talent in either drawing or painting, his creative outlet became photography. And in the dawn of the digital revolution, he followed suit and found his artistic calling.

Joseph discovered his gift for digital artistic expression quite by accident. Although he had become technically proficient at using Photoshop, he had yet to explore its creative avenues. And one evening while tinkering with an ordinary stock photo, he began to discover another realm. He began to color and distort the image. He experimented with the many artistic filters and tools. And after several hours, he emerged with his first pieces of genuine digital artwork. That was 1999 and the piece was called “Acid Church”. He was hooked and now nearly 9 years and 80 or so pieces later, Joseph is still as passionate about it as he ever was. He has had the pleasure of participating in numerous art exhibitions and shows throughout New York City. And now with his new studio in Louisville, he’s planning to carve out a niche for himself in their art scene as well.