Fire Island 2022
In June 2022 — Pride Month — I spent an entire month on Fire Island for my BOFFO artist residency, surrounded by a rich legacy of queer artists and history. With the support of BOFFO’s incredible team, the nominators who believed in me, and my friends Cherish, marshall, and Danny, who assisted me through the trip, I was able to create some of my most intimate work. Inspired by Tom Bianchi’s Fire Island Pines Polaroid book — which turned this island into a symbol of queer freedom and desire — I embraced Polaroids for their tactility, privacy, and defiance of censorship. From my wheelchair-height perspective, I captured golden-hour bodies, friendships, and flashes of intimacy, even as the island’s stairs and sand reminded me I wasn’t meant to access it. Each one-of-one Polaroid is a physical relic of that Pride Month — proof that I was there, claiming space and adding my chapter to Fire Island’s queer history.