Frank Teti was born and raised in New York’s Little Italy.  He was known around the world for his shots of celebrities and personalities, including six past presidents and even Pope John Paul II during a visit to the White House in 1979.    

Some of Frank’s favorite people to shoot included Elizabeth Taylor, Ann Margret, Robert DeNiro, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and of course, Bette Midler.  Frank would often shoot the stars with fellow photographer, Bob Scott.  “Frank was a really close friend of mine, we used to stake out Bette and Barbra in New York during the early days . . . he was an incredible photographer, and I really enjoyed working with him.”  

Just like Bob Scott, Frank was a big fan of Bette and chronicled her rise to stardom through stunning photos.  In a 1975 cover story for Advocate magazine, Bette had the opportunity to chose a few of her favorite photos to accompany the article. Vitto Russo wrote, "The majority of the photographs used here were chosen at the time of the interview by Bette from her personal collection of favorite shots.  They are published here for the first time at her request."  There were eight photos chosen in total, four of them were Frank's, the other four were Bob Scott's.  

In 1982, Frank published a remarkable book of photography entitled “Streisand: Through The Lens,” which dealt with the “why” of photography. What was so diverse about this book was that Frank interviewed many of the photographers featured about their work and experiences they had with Streisand - some of which were not always flattering - but it in turn allowed the reader to see through their perspective. Frank’s book greatly inspired this section of the webpage, and it is to him I pay the biggest tribute.