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Mascara, Mirth and Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island
Susan Kravitz
Special Edition Hardcover
Release date: Summer 2016
Photography & Introduction: Susan Kravitz
Foreword: Stephen Mayes
History & Interviews: Lani Buess
Pages: 148
Images: 88 images in full color & quadratones
Size: 12 in x 9.75 in
ISBN: 9780990790877 (Hardcover)
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Mascara, Mirth and Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island is an exuberant photographic document that celebrates four decades of an event known as “the Invasion of the Pines” by members of the neighboring LGBT community of Cherry Grove. Initially planned to shock their staid neighbors and protest their snobbery, this queenly invasion on every July 4 th, is a moment on Fire Island equal to Stonewall in Greenwich Village. It has grown in size and extravagance each year to become a joyful revelry of creative cross-dressing and a true independence day party.
The history of the original protest Invasion, along with selected interviews of participants, then and now, augment Susan Kravitz’s photographs of this elaborately theatrical event taken over a period of 30 years.
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About the Author
Susan Kravitz is a social documentarian of daily life. Over the past thirty years she has exhibited her photographs in galleries and museums in the United States and abroad, including China, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and the Czech Republic. Her Cherry Grove photographs were recently featured on the New York Times Lens blog (A Gay Haven on Fire Island) and in the International New York Times, Paris edition.
Kravitz, a native New Yorker who holds a BA degree in Sociology from Barnard College, first picked up a camera in her early twenties. Twenty years later, she seriously considered becoming a fine arts photographer and educator, earning an MFA in Photography from Long Island University/Post. In 1988, Kravitz became a full-time Photography Instructor in the Art Department at Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY. She served as Chairperson of the Art Department for nine years before her appointment, in 2004, as Dean for Arts and Humanities at Nassau Community College.
Since 2010, Susan Kravitz has devoted herself exclusively to fine art photography (www.susankravitz.com). She is a founding member of fotofoto gallery in Huntington, NY (www.fotofotogallery.org), where she has exhibited her photographs for the past thirteen years.
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Press
WPIX Channel 11
Read: New book illustrates evolution of Fire Island’s ‘Invasion of the Pines’ through photographs
Huffington Post
Read: A Sexy, Salty And Sad Look At One Of Fire Island’s Most Legendary Events