New York, NY, USA. The book includes a prologue by American writer, Patrick Ryan, and an introduction by curator, Nicholas Davies, besides “notes,” by Koitz himself. The atmosphere, reality and magic of the LGBTQ+ communities of Fire Island are gathered in the 90 photos, with the author always opting for joy and not the sad moments on the island that measures 96 kilometers east of New York City.
"Capturing gay life in a normal light is very important to me. I don’t want the viewer to think of my subjects –or myself-- as freaks or oddities, but simply as people living their own lives in their own world, according to their own wishes. Many of these people have a unique form of expression that deserves recognition and promotion and, in a way, my idea is always to take this extraordinary spectacle and somehow convert it into something like reverence," says Koitz, born and raised in Pamplona-Iruña, although he is a NY resident since 1994, where in his extensive career has been a correspondent for the Basque public radio, in his role as a journalist; as well as, at the beginning of the century, president of Eusko Etxea of New York.
Koitz interviewed by Amaia Medinabeitia on Navarra televisión (images from the book at the end)
In 2015, Koitz received the Founders Cultural Award, from the University of Southern California (USC), in Los Angeles that supports artists from different minority communities. In June of that year, the University exhibited a collection of his photos entitled, Fire Island: Fun in the Sun in the Verle Annis Hall, as reported by EuskalKultura.eus in this article.
-Blog: Gay Fire Island
-The book is available in the US and Euskal Herria in bookstores and from Elkar, see here
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