SUSAN KRAVITZ EXHIBITION - Cherry Grove Archives Collection

SUSAN KRAVITZ EXHIBITION

Susan Kravitz has explored the tradition of documentary photography in many of her projects, which she has exhibited in numerous galleries, museums and universities in the United States and abroad.

Her photographs of people, taken in both the studio and on the street, attempt to explore the depth and complexity of the human condition.

Susan taught photography as a full-time professor in the Art Department at Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY for sixteen years and was Chairperson of the Art Department for nine of those years. In 2010 she retired as Dean for Arts and Humanities at NCC and she returned to work- ing as a fine art photographer after retirement from academia.

Susan has an M.F.A. in Photography and a B.A. in Sociology. She is a founding member of fotofoto Gallery in Huntington, NY.

Susan served as a member of the Cherry Grove Archives Collection for several years and was one of the curators of the photography exhibition, Safe Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove, which was on view at the Stonewall National Museum in Ft. Lauderdale and at the NY Historical Society in NYC, and was turned into a photographic art book.

Susan has published several books of her own photography, including Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem, An Enduring Spirit: 1980s Cherry Grove, Gaiety in The Grove, Cherry Grove in Living Color (Part I & II), and most recently, Dancing Through The Dark: The Cherry Grove Ball 1983-1992.

She has been living in the Grove with her partner (also named Sue) for over 40 years and docuementing our community’s queer lifestlye.

Susan Kravitz began taking photos in Cherry Grove over 40 years ago.

When you see the vibrance and life in Susan’s photos, its hard to believe she started off as a studio photographer. It seems like two different worlds and perspectives, but when she came to Cherry Grove, Susan was so inspired by the queer liberation all around her, that she immersed herself in documenting this safe haven.

Susan Kravitz has been photographing the lifestyle of Cherry Grove for more than 40 years and she has seen our community grow with each passing decade. She has used her camera to document the people, the places, the parties and the queer culture that makes the Grove such a special place.

Through her images we can explore the history of Cherry Grove and the important impact it has had on so many LGBTQIA+ people all around the world. Her photos are fun, political, tender, sad and celebratory…and she has captured Cherry Grove through time, like no no else has done.

Susan Kravitz talking about how she found her passion for documentary photography in the Grove.

Though she spent many years as a professor, Susan still seems to approach her work as a student, always learning new ways to capture her subjects and hone her craft.

The process of photography may have changed, but the way she pursues her work is with an ever-present curiosity for the explosions of queer joy all around her.

Gay Pride Parades, theater productions and private parties…Susan has managed to find intimate expression in even the most public spaces.

She seeks both the quiet moments and those of action, through her lens she is able to reflect the underlined meaning and she gives a voice to those in her photos, without saying a word.

Susan Kravitz discusses how she made the move from traditional black & white photography to color.

Susan Kravitz’s latest book, Dancing Through The Dark: The Cherry Grove Ball 1983–1992, is a deeply moving collection of black-and-white images captured during a defining decade in Cherry Grove’s history.

At the height of the AIDS crisis when grief, fear, and loss struck the heart of the LGBTQ+ community, Cherry Grove responded each September with a radiant act of resistance and joy: The Ball. Held to mark the end of the summer season, the Ball became a celebration of life, love, and chosen family. This book honors that legacy.

Through her lens, Kravitz documents the exuberance, the glamour, the intimacy but also the defiance of a community determined to dance in the face of darkness. Each photograph stands as a testament to those who lived, those who loved, and those who were lost, while offering a timeless reminder of the power of celebration in the midst of sorrow.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Arts Project Ball was a safe space to be out, to love, to be passionate and joyous, to cross-dress, to be gender non-conforming, to be trans or even to be straight (there were a few), but it was most especially a time to celebrate.

There were same-sex couples twirling around the dance floor and queens looking glamorous in their best attire.

Susan Kravitz recalls the joyous celebrations, even during our darkest days.

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Doing drag has been a form of defiance and queer expression since the first gays arrived in the Grove.

Whether playing at campy themed parties or putting on performances at the Community House (which is the longest running LGBTQ theater in the U.S.), our community members have always been challenging gender roles.

Even in times when the act of doing drag was still considered a crime, there was a freedom to express yourself through clothing and performance in the comfort of our safe haven.

Having been photographing the lifestyle and many activities of the Grove for several decades, Susan has seen the art of drag progress over time, from some- thing that was more of a humorous play on femininity to what she sees as a more glamorized and suffocated tribute to womanhood.

Susan Kravitz discusses the way drag has changed over the years.

The Invasion of the Pines began in 1976 and its an event that is steeped in tradition.

Every summer hundreds of campy, glamorous, kooky and colorful costumed participants pack the boards and ferries, to celebrate the Fourth of July and our queer independence.

It first began as an act of protest 50 years ago, but this annual celebration has become a giant party for both the Grove and the Pines.

In many ways the event hasn’t changed much since it first began with Thom “Panzi” Hansen and a small group of original invaders who were speaking out against bias within our own queer community.

And yet for others the Invasion has changed in ways that some feel may be hurting the legacy.

Susan Kravitz talks about her years of photographing the Invasion.

Susan seems most attracted to photographing people. Some were flamboyant and others were understated, yet she is drawn to them both.

In her quiet manner, she can go unnoticed in a whirlwind of drag queens and party goers, allowing her to capture so many people in the Grove at their most “unfiltered”.

In this process, unknown to her at the time, Susan was creating a rare collection of photos that feature some of the most iconic personalities of our community.

Susan Kravitz discussing how she unintentionally created a catalogue of Cherry Grove history.

Cherry Grove was one of the most hard hit queer communities when the devastating AIDS epidemic took so many men’s lives.

Tearing through Fire Island both in the Grove and the Pines, with the number of lives lost, everyone would be touched by this disease.

But it was in our safe haven that many chose to spend their final days, among their friends and chosen family, where they would not be ostracized or abused by a world that was scared and uneducated.

Here in our queer community there could not only be safety, but moments of celebration, that were much needed for those struggling with the symptoms and side effects of the deadly virus.

So many men who were participating in the Invasion, knew that they would likely not be returning again next year and they cherished the time to laugh and love and be loved.

Susan Kravitz reflects on the Grove during the AIDS crisis.

Since the 1940s Cherry Grove has been a sanctuary for queer people and it continues to be a safe space for many LGBTQIA+ folks that don’t feel protected in the rest of the world.

The evolution of this tiny beach hamlet that was mostly inhabited by families from Long Island and New Jersey who were using their basic cottages for fishing and canoeing, into a thriving bastion of queerness has a long and winding tale.

At times the tensions between straights and gays were reflected in police raids of the Meat Rack in the 60s and some cruelties were cast upon many gay men during the AIDS crisis. But there were also those pushing back against the “founding families” to insist that Cherry Grove was an exclusively gay space.

Over the decades our community has grown to be more inclusive of all those in the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and who come to the Grove with the intentions of positivity.

When Susan arrived in Cherry Grove it was something as simple as a few words painted at the end of a boardwalk leading into the Meat Rack that would set her on a journey to explore her own sexual identity.

Susan Kravitz disucsses the details about on of her most iconic photos.

Susan Kravitz and her wife Sue.

Audio clips used in this exhibition are taken from an interview with Susan Kravitz conducted by filmmaker Parker Sargent.