Fire Island: Out In the Sun

Photography by Koitz

When I started taking photographs in Fire Island a decade ago, I had not yet seen or heard about the work of Jared French, Paul Cadmus, and Margaret Hoening French done in the 1940s or the beautiful, haunting Polaroids of life in the Pines in the '70s and '80s taken by Tom Bianchi," Koitz explains. "In fact, coming from Europe, I remember the first time that I visited Fire Island, I was completely shocked by what I saw and especially by the people I saw there. Shocked, because it was so different from anything I knew, and also enchanting for that same reason. So, from that beginning, I have had a sort of 'love-skepticism' relationship with this gay island but as years passed and I examined my body of work, I began to see a pattern."

An exhibit of Koitz's photographs, titled Fire Island: Out in the Sun, will be on view at the USC Verle Annis Gallery, Harris Hall Courtyard, Los Angeles, CA, April 24-28.