QueerGuru
For more than two decades, koitz has photographed LGBTQ+ life on Fire Island, documenting the people, places, parties and private moments that make Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines such distinctive communities. In 2020, QueerGuru featured this work in an article titled “Queer Summers on Fire Island: captured by koitz,” highlighting the publication of koitz Gay Fire Island, a photography book chronicling 14 summers spent photographing the two predominantly LGBTQ+ communities of Fire Island.
The feature brought together photographs from across the project, including images from Cherry Grove, Fire Island Pines, beaches, parties and everyday moments.
14 Summers on Fire Island
koitz Gay Fire Island grew from years of returning to Fire Island and photographing its communities over successive summers.
The work is not intended as an academic or conventional historical record. Instead, the photographs capture encounters, relationships, celebrations, performances and intimate moments—often the kind of moments that might otherwise disappear from the visual history of the island.
Koitz began photographing for The Fire Island News, one of the island's seasonal newspapers, which opened the door to parties, events and a wider community of people and experiences.
Over time, the photographs became a larger visual archive of LGBTQ+ life on Fire Island.
Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines
Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines have distinct identities, histories and communities, but both occupy an extraordinary place in LGBTQ+ cultural history.
Koitz's photographs move between the two communities, recording both the public and private sides of Fire Island life: the beach, nightlife, performances, parties, friendships, intimacy and quiet moments between them.
The photographs also preserve something more difficult to describe—the atmosphere of a particular time and place.
A Visual Record of Queer Life
Curator Nicholas Davies, who contributed the introduction to koitz Gay Fire Island, described the work as revealing contrasts between public and private moments and the remarkable cultural history of Cherry Grove and the Pines.
That contrast remains central to the photographs.
Fire Island can be exuberant and theatrical, but it can also be intimate, personal and unexpectedly quiet. The archive attempts to preserve all of those dimensions rather than reducing the island to a single image.
Featured by QueerGuru
QueerGuru's 2020 feature remains an important part of the history of the project. It introduced the book and photographs to its readers while placing the work within the broader history of LGBTQ+ culture on Fire Island.
The article featured photographs including Cameron and Adam, Friends on the Beach, The Beach, Pines Party, Adoring Him, Walking the Dog, and Me and My Doll: Cherry Grove.
These photographs form part of a larger archive documenting LGBTQ+ life on Fire Island across more than two decades.
Read the original QueerGuru feature: Queer Summers on Fire Island: captured by koitz
Explore the Fire Island Archive
Explore more photographs from Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, discover koitz Gay Fire Island, and browse the wider LGBTQ+ visual archive.
The photographs continue to document the people, places and moments that have made Fire Island an extraordinary part of LGBTQ+ history.