Women of Distinction
30
Photos courtesy of Dawn Nicoli
D
awn Nicoli is a woman with a multitude of talents. Dawn is a world class photographer, an exceptional writer, and an incredible human being. She has spent most of her life creating aesthetic beauty and has an innate beauty that radiates from within. Dawn was raised in a wonderful caring family in Westfield, Massachusetts where she attended school and remained until the photography bug took hold and she pursued her passion attending photography school at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. To finish her training, she chose San Diego City College and ended up not wanting to leave our beautiful town. There was one secret that was revealed to her when she was just six years old, and that was that Dawn was adopted. “I can remember my mom sitting me down and telling me in the most beautiful way. She told me that she and my dad couldn't have a baby, but there was a woman, my mother, who had a baby and couldn't take care of her. She said that God put us together, and we magically became a perfect family.” Dawn understood and was blessed with an incredible childhood, but she always wondered who her birth mother was, because she would gaze around at all her friends, and they all looked like little clones of their mothers. She always wondered if she looked like her mom as well. Dawn had shared this with her babysitter who told her that when she got older, she could go to the big Catholic Monastery from where she was adopted, and they would have to tell her who her real mom was. When Dawn turned 18, she set out to do just
Dawn Nicoli By Judith A. Habert
that, but sadly found out that it wasn’t quite that easy. “One of the saddest days was when I found out that it was a sealed adoption meaning that the information was locked and sealed away.” Dawn is not a woman who easily takes no for an answer. She continued searching every way possible to find out the coveted information. In the meantime, Dawn had pursued her photography career. “I knew when I was 16 years old that pho-
She couldn’t go but passed the trip on to me and my best friend. This was a pretty big trip for a 16-year-old to take, from Massachusetts to Acapulco. My girlfriend and I went, and we hired a taxi to take us up into the hills to photograph the Mexican people. We spotted this family of pigs walking across the street and as we followed them with our cameras, they lead us to this little hacienda. A Mexican father was standing over a hearth
tography was what I wanted to do. I took an elective course in dark room photography and learned how to process film. That same year, my mother won a trip to Acapulco.
with a large machete. He was cutting vegetables for the family meal with all his little children in the background, looking at dad preparing the meal. I took that photograph in black
and white. And then I came back to Massachusetts and developed it in the school darkroom, excited to show my friends a scene they could never have imagined. At that moment I knew how powerful photography could be. It became a means of communication, a means of showing somebody something that they couldn't fathom and a way of expressing myself.” Dawn was hooked and knew she had chosen the right profession. During her studies at San Diego City College she was enrolled in a Photography Business class and one day during the class, somebody came in and put a note in front of the teacher's eyes and he read it at the end of the class. It was this note that would start her on her photojournalism career. The note informed the class that channel eight, KFMB, was looking to hire freelance photographers and to call Bob Kari, the art director, at the number provided. Dawn jotted down the number, thinking that everyone in the class would be flooding the director with calls. “I ended up getting selected for it, along with another guy from my class, and come to find out we were the only ones that applied. This was what I guess you would call one of those life lessons. I realized that if you don't reach out and try to make something happen, nothing ever will.” Dawn loved her time there. “I worked for three years creating photographs
for the station’s feature stories in TV guide. I would find the models and locations to depict the theme of the story.” Dawn freelanced for about 10 years just doing all sorts of different jobs while she waitressed to help pay the bills. “I wondered what the heck was ever going to happen to me. Warnings my parents gave me about my career choice kept haunting me, but when you love something so much in the back of your mind, you just know it will work out. I was working for the Sheraton hotel as a concierge and a banquet waitress. Because I loved photography so much, I would wander down to the hotel’s basement as they started transforming it into an exhibit hall. They would roll out this carpet and create exhibit booths for annual corporate conventions. I‘d venture down there on my breaks and I just started photographing the set ups. One day a woman came up to me and asked if I was a professional photographer? Of course, the answer is always YES. She handed me a card that said Greyhound Exhibit Services. The woman explained to me that they set up these big shows all over the country. Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was traveling all around the United States, photographing these exhibits for different associations. Each association would put my forms in their packets so that ev-
