TOM BIANCHI – FIRE ISLAND PINES

TOM BIANCHI
Fire Island Pines

Published by Damiani, 2013
Book size 22.5 x 26.3 mm
Pages 212 pages
Hardcover with a slipcase
Language English
ISBN 9788862082709

Growing up in the 1950s, Tom Bianchi would head into downtown Chicago and pick up 25-cent “physics” magazines at newsstands. In one such magazine, he found a photograph of bodybuilder Glenn Bishop on Fire Island. “Fire Island sounded exotic, perhaps a name made up by the photographer,” he recalls in the preface to his latest monograph. “I had no idea it was a real place. Certainly, I had no idea then that it was a place I would one day call home.” In 1970, fresh out of law school, Bianchi began traveling to New York, and was invited to spend a weekend at Fire Island Pines, where he encountered a community of gay men. Using an SX-70 Polaroid camera, Bianchi documented his friends' lives in the Pines, amassing an archive image of people, parties and private moments. These images, published here for the first time, and accompanied by Bianchi's moving memoir of the era, record the birth and development of a new culture. Soaked in sun, sex, camaraderie and reverie, Fire Island Pines conjures a magical bygone era.
Tom Bianchi was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1970. He became a corporate attorney, eventually working with Columbia Pictures in New York, painting and drawing on weekends. His artwork came to the attention of Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfuss and they gave him his first one-man painting show in 1980.

Growing up in the 1950s, Tom Bianchi would go to downtown Chicago and buy 25-cent fitness magazines at newsstands. In one of these magazines, he found a photo of bodybuilder Glenn Bishop on Fire Island. “Fire Island looked exotic, perhaps a name invented by the photographer,” he recalls in the preface to his latest monograph. “I had no idea it was a real place. Certainly, I had no idea at the time that it was a place I would one day call home.” In 1970, fresh out of law school, Bianchi began traveling to New York and was invited to spend a weekend at Fire Island Pines, where he encountered a community of gay men. Using a Polaroid SX-70 camera, Bianchi documented his friends’ lives in the Pines, assembling an archive of images of people, parties, and private moments. These images, published here for the first time and accompanied by Bianchi’s moving memoir of the time, bear witness to the birth and development of a new culture. Steeped in sunshine, sex, camaraderie, and reverie, Fire Island Pines evokes a magical bygone era.
Tom Bianchi was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1970. He became a corporate lawyer, eventually working with Columbia Pictures in New York, painting and drawing on weekends. His work caught the attention of Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfuss and they gave him his first solo painting exhibition in 1980.