One aspect of the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) program for emerging LGBTQ artists is a lecture series, in which leaders in the field of contemporary art come to the Community House to address the resident artists, a series which began, this summer, with an appearance by television’s “Transparent” producer Zackary Drucker. On August 7, the visiting artist was photographer Luna Luis Ortiz, from Visual AIDS, one of FIAR’s original sponsors and a collaborator ever since. He was interviewed here by Visual AIDS Programs Director Alex Fialho. Visual AIDS assist artists living with HIV and preserves work of artists lost to AIDS.
Ortiz began with self-portraits and portraits of his friends, but is perhaps best known for his photos of the Ballroom Voguing scene, celebrated by Jennie Livingston in her documentary film “Paris Is Burning,” by Madonna in her song and music video “Vogue,” and by RuPaul. This Black and Latino community, Ortiz explained, was particularly hard hit in the early days of the AIDS Crisis, and he wishes that Livingston, Madonna, and RuPaul would have assisted more, providing funds and jobs. Ortiz acknowledged the influence on his life and work of Hollywood film icons Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe and of Stonewall-era activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, pioneering founders of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). Ortiz, who did not expect to survive beyond his mid-teens, has now had work displayed in the Museum of the City of New York, the Whitney Museum, Boston Center for the Arts, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.