Queer Photographer Koitz Brings Fire Island to Los Angeles

No one captures the magic of Fire Island quite like queer photographer Koitz, and even folks in Los Angeles have taken notice. The noted Brooklyn-based photographer—whose work has previously been featured at the Leslie-Lohmann Foundation and the Basque House in Williamsburg—premieres his second solo exhibition, Fire Island: Out in the Sun, this evening at the Verle Annis Gallery at the University of Southern California.

We chatted with Koitz about the exhibit (which runs through April 28), his love for Fire Island, and which subject his lens loves more: sexy and bronze beach-goers or gorgeous Pines drag queens.

(Pictured above: Dallas Dubois)

What first brought you to Fire Island in 1995? What were your first impressions?

The first time I visited Fire Island was in 1995 when I day-tripped the Pines to play volleyball, and then later that afternoon we went to someone’s house where there was a pool. Almost everyone got naked and swam and had fun while I sat on the edge of the pool in my bathing suit. A few years later in off-season October, I went back to Fire Island, this next time to Cherry Grove, where my boyfriend Doug and another couple had rented a cottage. We spent the whole weekend cooking meals, baking apple pies and walking on the beach. I come from a relatively small town in the Basque country, and I had never seen anything like what I experienced in the Grove, which was both shocking and truly enchanting. It was obvious there was something very different and very special about so many of the people I encountered as well as by the great natural beauty of the place. I was immediately attracted by Fire Island’s magic.

In the 20 years you’ve been visiting, do you have a favorite event you’ve photographed?

While I’ve been privileged to take photographs at hundreds of events in both the Grove and the Pines, I think my favorite regular event to photograph is the massive Invasion of the Pines—that annual celebration of outrageousness overcoming “good taste” that takes place on the Fourth of July in which a boatful of drag queens and a few drag kings go by ferry from the dock at Cherry Grove to the dock in the Pines. They are welcomed by applauding crowds as they make their way down the catwalk. I’m with them at the gathering place in the Ice Palace, and then I accompany them on the boat. The moment that the ferry pulls away from the Grove dock and the captain blows the ship’s horn, something absolutely magical happens. There is such a positive energy and everybody seems genuinely happy. I love it! And that positive energy impacts the whole Fourth of July weekend, which is really the start of the summer. I always love shooting at Daniel Nardicio’s Underwear Party that weekend, as well as at IndepenDance, which always has fun themes and great camaraderie.

Who does your lens love more: sexy beach-goers or drag queens?

Personally, I love both, but if it seems I take more photographs of drag queens than of sun-tanned Adonises. That’s probably because I don’t really like the beach and am much happier working in darker, more closed spaces like in nightclubs or in the woods at dusk or even in our backyard garden, where I do lots of portraits. But how can anyone not fall for the fabulousness of extraordinary people like Porshe, Ariel Sinclair, or Logan Hardcore (just to name these few). They always seem to offer something new to the camera. I love them all.

Have you always focused on documenting the LGBT community with your work? Why?

While I do some editorial and fashion photography, my chief focus of the past 10 years has been to document a part of the LGBT community that I know and associate with in both New York and on Fire Island. One thing I am very committed to: I do not wish to take photographs of people at undignified moments—I’m definitely not a crime-scene photographer—and too many LGBT people, I feel, have been made fun of or mocked in photos for looking some way or acting some other. I want the people in my photographs to be happy and proud of the ways they look, and I’m always pleased when I’m told by a drag queen “I know you’ll make us look good.”

What are some of the characteristics of your ideal photographic subject? With your more intimate portraits—particularly with your erotic and nude stills—how do you gain the subjects’ trust to capture those intimate moments?

For one thing, I choose to photograph models who appeal to me in one way or another. This may not be sexual, exactly, such as the shape of his lips, or a pair of sleepy eyes, but it can be sexual, as well. Every photographer understands you have to be very careful—in spite of porn scenarios to this effect—about letting your own feelings intrude on the session since in a matter of seconds usually you have to gain the trust of the person or people in front of your lens. And the models vary widely as well in how they treat being photographed. It is amazing, for instance, how comfortable some people feel being naked in front of the camera, while others are not comfortable at all, even when they have great bodies. In the end, we have to work together in order to get the pictures we want, and so it’s important that the chemistry between us should work, especially since my shoots tend to be fairly long, usually between three and four hours. They’re fun, these sessions, but they’re also real work.

In regards to your series documenting the LGBT community, is there a particular story or thread that you try to express within your body of work?

“Free People”—like Martha Wash sings about in her latest dance track of that name!). Friends of mine in the Grove have always said “Free to be you and me!” was their motto. I try not to judge people on superficial grounds, just as I don’t want them judging me. In my photographic work, I aim to represent what’s “normal” in LBGT life. Drag queens are normal. People enjoying themselves, loving themselves, loving others—that’s all normal. I am not interested in portraying gay New York or gay Fire Island as some freak show. I want to document a world of people living normal lives in the ways they wish.

How did the Fire Island: Out in the Sun exhibition with USC come about?

I have to thank the exhibition curator, Victor Jones, who’s a Faculty Fellow at USC, for this exhibition. When Victor and I were introduced one day by friends in Los Angeles, I gave him my business card that, on one side, has a picture I’d taken on Fire Island. He loved the photo and asked me if I had others. I said yes and showed him a few more. I am very flattered he liked them. The University of Southern California Office of Residential Education’s mission is to enrich the cultural experiences of students living in the USC residential communities and I believe that Victor thought that this exhibition could help them accomplish that. They made me a 2015 recipient of the USC Founders Cultural Award and it is given in the form of hosting an exhibition to promote and cultivate awareness of emerging artists whose work is socially and culturally minded.

What will be shown at the exhibition?

The exhibition consists of 14 photographs in various sizes. Victor and I chose a few of what I call “Fire Island Classics”: one is a blurred, kind of time-lapse photograph of Low Tea in the Pines; a photograph of former drag queen Dallas Dubois in the recently burnt-down Grove Hotel; one taken at Daniel Nardicio’s weekly Underwear party in the Ice Palace that I call “Berlin in the Grove” (you see this mix of guys in their underwear, an intimate moment taking place on the foreground and a couple of drag queens engaging on stage). Other photographs in the exhibition include a scene at the Belvedere Guest House, the Bay Dance party, and some purely private moments.

What’s the highlight of your summer on Fire Island? Is there anything you’re especially looking forward to this summer?

As I mentioned before, there are usually many highlights, photographically speaking, throughout a summer on Fire Island. A couple of years ago, I started photographing for the Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society, which is a cause that I really believe in: it is important to preserve the past in order to pass it to future generations, and especially for us LGBT people. At a personal level, spending quality time with my boyfriend Doug, our housemates Jim and Richard, and with so many of the friends—young and old—that we’ve made during these past summers in both Cherry Grove and the Pines. I also look forward to long walks in the Sunken Forest and the occasional ride in the water taxi to a different community, without forgetting the truly amazing dinners that my housemate and friend Richard prepares every single weekend. All this, accompanied if possible by a glass of cold Prosecco on a warm evening? Heaven!

Fire Island: Out in the Sun at Verle Annis Gallery at the University of Southern California, April 24–28. Visit koitzphoto.com for more info on the artist.