• Log in
    ExpertsEat & DrinkTravelogueExclusivesTravel TipsPrint IssueVideoNews
    ADVOCATEOUTPridePLUSADVOCATE CHANNEL
    SubscribeSubscriber ServicesEmail Newsletter Signup
    CONTACTCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
    © 2023 Pride Publishing Inc.
    All Rights reserved
    OutTravelerOutTraveler

    Tom Bianchi's Vintage Polaroids Capture Fire Island's Historic Queer Haven

    Out.Com Editors
    Scroll To Top

    By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.

    Accept

    Tom Bianchi's Fire Island

    Tom Bianchi's Fire Island

    New York’s Fire Island today has become a superficial summer escape from city life, but for generations of queers before us, the 36 mile-long paradise off the coast of Long Island was a more serious refuge from everyday homophobia. This forgotten history has been chronicled in Fire Island Pines, Throckmorton Fine Art’s new exhibit featuring photography by Tom Bianchi, who documented the free-spirited community in its “golden” age. 

    “The world we were living in disregarded us and called us perverts,” Bianchi told VICE. “So the brilliance of Fire Island was that it was built by those people who imagined a different world and set out to create it. We carved out the tiniest little place just for ourselves, where we could be safe and laugh and play with one another on the beach, and not have any negative judgement surrounding us.”

    In the heat of the AIDS epidemic, as many as 10,000 queers would flee 60 miles east of Manhattan to openly celebrate their sexuality at afternoon "Tea Dances" and bacchanals. For many visitors, Fire Island was the only place they could be emotionally and physically intimate with same-sex lovers—something as simple as holding hands was socially taboo back in the city, and could result in blackmail, lost jobs or fully destroyed reputations. 
     
    Bianchi's lens highlights not only a warm liberation of gay romance, but a widespread rise in traditional male sex appeal, which the photographer argues was a response to years of queers being socially ostracized and called "pansies" by the straight community. "Suddenly this really beautiful community of men emerged, and they all boarded planes, trains, or buses to Fire Island every weekend," he said, pointing his polaroid camera at sculpted men in speedos. 
     
    Keep clicking to see a preview of Throckmorton's exhibit—on display through September 16—and click here to purchase Bianchi's official book, Fire Island Pines: Polaroids 1975-1983.
    close button
    New YorkFire Island
    Replay Gallery

    More Galleries

    4 Dead, Several Injured After Helicopters Collide on Australian Beach
    News
    Badge
    gallery

    4 Dead, Several Injured After Helicopters Collide on Australian Beach

    January 02 2023 11:14 AM
    These 8 Destinations Will Have You Dreaming of a Warm Christmas
    Destinations
    Badge
    gallery

    These 8 Destinations Will Have You Dreaming of a Warm Christmas

    December 24 2022 11:12 AM
    Times Square in New York City at night
    Best of Travel
    Badge
    gallery

    Sniffies Reveals Horniest Cities

    December 22 2022 4:15 PM
    Our Journey to Kirkpinar: 20 Years Later
    Travelogue
    Badge
    gallery

    Turkish Oil Wrestling: Male Bonding at the Kirkpinar Festival 

    December 20 2022 2:20 PM
    Sniffies investigates the queerness and homoeroticism inherent in frat culture \u2013 and here are the mouthwatering pics to prove it.
    Events
    Badge
    gallery

    20 Thirsty Pics of #SniffiesRush Campaign Celebrating Frat Life

    December 16 2022 3:19 PM
    Reno Gold and his doctor boyfriend Austin in their new travel show “Boyfriends Big World”
    Exclusives
    Badge
    gallery

    OnlyFans Star Reno Gold on His New Boyfriend and Travel Show

    December 16 2022 3:10 PM