Growing up in the 1950's, Tom Bianchi wouldhead into downtown Chicago and pick up 25-cent “physique” magazines at newsstands. Inone such magazine, he found a photograph ofbodybuilder Glenn Bishop on Fire Island. “FireIsland sounded exotic, perhaps a name madeup by the photographer,” he recalls in the prefaceto his latest monograph. “I had no idea itwas a real place. Certainly, I had no idea thenthat it was a place I would one day call home.”In 1970, fresh out of law school, Bianchi begantraveling to New York, and was invited tospend a weekend at Fire Island Pines, where heencountered a community of gay men. Usingan SX-70 Polaroid camera, Bianchi documentedhis friends' lives in the Pines, amassing an imagearchive of people, parties and private moments.These images, published here for thefirst time, and accompanied by Bianchi's movingmemoir of the era, record the birth and developmentof a new culture. Soaked in sun, sex,camaraderie and reverie, Fire Island Summersconjures a magical bygone era.Tom Bianchi was born and raised in the suburbsof Chicago and graduated from NorthwesternUniversity School of Law in 1970. He became acorporate attorney, eventually working withColumbia Pictures in New York, painting anddrawing on weekends. His artwork came to theattention of Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfussand they gave him his first one-man paintingshow in 1980. In 1984, he was given his firstsolo museum exhibition at the Spoleto Festival.After Tom's partner died of AIDS in 1988,he turned his focus to photography, producingOut of the Studio, a candid portrayal of gay intimacy.Its success led to producing numerousmonographs, including On the Couch, DeepSex and In Defense of Beauty.
