Fire Island Musings: Photographer Sam Penn and Artist Ser Serpas in Conversation

At 1 pm on a Friday, Sam Penn, the 27-year-old photographer, sits next to me on my couch in Chinatown waiting for Ser Serpas. The 30-year-old artist and poet dials in from Fire Island Pines, with the screen name “Magdalena’s iPhone.” She has just woken up.

The occasion for our call is the release of Penn’s first solo portrait of Serpas, a limited edition print tied to Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art’s acquisition of work from the photographer’s fall show at Ethan James Green’s New York Life Gallery.

Here, Penn shares an exclusive selection of night photographs taken in the Pines while Serpas talks to us poolside from the house where the hit gay porn film, Boys in the Sand (1971), was shot 55 years ago. Today, the house has been taken over by a cabal of dolls, including the painter Nash Glynn, the actress Hari Nef, and the writer Blythe Marks.

Ser Serpas: I’m keeping my camera off. I didn’t sleep the night before last and I’m like, busted. Do you guys like my Muslim men’s shorts that I got in Egypt?

Sam Penn: We can’t see you babe!

SS: Right, do you want to see them?

SP: Yes! It’s okay, you can flash us, don’t worry.

[Ser turns her camera on, she’s topless. The camera jolts past a glimmering pool, then angles back around to show off a pair of long navy shorts.]

SS: Oh my god. Do not look at my face.

SP: Cute. [Draws out word.]

SS: Ok, what year did we first meet Sam? Were we at a party?

SP: I feel like I remember going to Cafe Himalaya with you.

SS: It was totally Cafe Himalaya.

SP: I liked Ser right away, I was very happy to be around people. I had just moved to New York and was excited to have friends.

SS: Because what year was that? How old were you?

SP: I was 18! I was in my first year of school, so it must have been 2017. But you were older.

SS: I had just graduated. When we first met and started going out together, we would break off together to vibe check at parties. There was a lot of overstimulation, we were around some pretty intense characters at the time. Pretty quickly we realized we could rely on each other.

SP: You’re definitely one of my oldest friends in the city. We’ve survived several cycles of friend groups.

SS: And you’ve always had your camera.

SP: I remember we went to this one group dinner at Forlini’s, and you had a sheer black dress on-–you were holding a red flower.

SS: Yes, wasn’t it a dinner for Aria Dean?

SP: I think maybe that’s where we met for the first time, actually. I remember you asking me to take a picture of you right away. I still have those pictures of you. I also remember there was this one night where we went out with a larger group and we were at some party in Brooklyn and you asked me to go with you to The Glove. Do you remember The Glove?

Max Battle: I remember the Glove.

SS: Ok, so we’re suddenly in a dungeon.

SP: Do you remember this? I just remember I loved the name.

SS: Do you remember The Glove, girl? [Serpas directs off camera.]

[From a chair by the pool, someone, Hari Nef, I think, says “no” right away. Another voice, belonging, without doubt, to Nash Glynn, croons “Sam!”]

SP: We were also going to dinners at that apartment on Orchard Street.

SS: That felt like the center of our social life for a second.

SP: Yes, it definitely was. One of our friends lived in his parents' floor-through loft on Orchard Street. We were going to dinner parties there every week, or just like bringing up pizza from Scarr’s and hanging out.

SS: I have this cute photo of us from a house party when Hannah (Black) and I moved in together. The first time I went to The Pines was with you and Hannah. Was that your first time too?

SP: I think I actually went with Precious (Okoyomon) one time before, or maybe it was Hannah, but I'd been once before.

SS: When we went, Hannah was doing the BOFFO residency. I remember it seeming really vast here. It was foggy, and there was nobody on the beach. State troopers came and told us to hike up our clothes because we were on the state beach, past the Pines on the way to Water Island. Hannah got pissed off and started arguing with them. I just did an overnight, and then I never really thought about the Pines again. I was pretty in my own head that summer, and I didn't feel the community of it all, which now is the thing that sticks out most to me—the people and how people act towards each other here is what keeps me coming back. It wasn't until I did the BOFFO residency that I started to see that side of the Pines.

SP: I remember this moment when you had moved to Switzerland and I was still in New York. We kept in touch over FaceTime. Then in 2022 I was subletting a place on Catherine Street and you were back in the city and told me you were offered the residency.

SS: I did that residency at such a particular time. It was monkeypox and actually not a good time to be around people, but I had just got my tits done, and I wanted to be by the pool, so. . . But Sam, how about you? When did you get into being here?

SP: I remember being there with Hannah, we did acid and went to the Sunken Forest. Hari texted me that summer because she was out there with Nash and Sarah (Nicole Prickett) and David (Velasco) and hannah (baer). I started going back and forth between the two houses and getting a feel for the social world out there. Friendships developed at a much quicker pace.

SS: The layers of exhaustion and partying will do that... I do feel that the communication flowed more smoothly in a lot of my relationships there. That is just what happens when you’re on vacation with friends. Since it’s only a few hours away from the city, it’s also a place that people can kind of drop in on pretty easily. It’s an escape from workaholism. I haven’t missed a summer out here since 2022.

SP: Yeah, I think 2020 was the first time I went, and I’ve been going every summer ever since. 2022 was definitely the longest stretch I’ve been out there. When I first went, I was kind of blown away by the amount of gay guys. I wasn’t sure that it was a place for me, but since I was going with women, lesbians, trans people, I connected with the island and felt ok stepping outside of our circle too, like we always go to the underwear party and we love the gay guys, the anti-Zionist ones. If you’re with the right people you can let go a bit and blend into the island.

SS: I could see the history out here influencing future work, as far as writing goes and how I structure exhibitions. There is a lot to play with, in the history as well as the ecological precarity. It is a place where a lot of artists and culture workers spend time and share space. It’s a cultural phenomenon that is really having a moment, which is attracting more artists in a seemingly paradoxical way. Since the island is coming into popular culture it’s becoming more popular for weirdos.

SP: There’s such a great lineage of artists and writers that have been going out there for a while too. Wolfgang (Tillmans) has been shooting out in the pines for years, and Nicole (Eisenman) and David (Velasco)—too many people to name. I mean really since the BOFFO residency started in 2012 it’s my understanding there has been a fresh wave of artists out there, and every year it seems there are more fab trans people coming too.

The space and nature has been important for my work, which is pretty social. Being with people in a beautiful place where time stretches out and slows down makes it easier to connect. There are so many possibilities for how a day or a night can go out there, so it’s really conducive to how I shoot.

SP: The picture of Ser available for this print sale was taken in 2023 at the beginning of a night that definitely ended after sunrise on the beach.

SS: We were gallivanting around, exploring other houses on the island. We ran into another group on the beach that morning.

SP: I took a lot of photos that night, I showed one of them in Paris of Cloe (Young). It’s fun to look back through scans and find something new. I remember we ended up in an edgy hot tub. The people that owned the house weren’t there. I took this picture of you by the pool at a big house on the bay where a friend was staying. This is actually the first solo portrait I’ve shown of you, and I’m happy to be doing it in conjunction with this Leslie-Lohman museum acquisition of two photos from my fall show, they were both taken in the pines too. And I’m glad to be donating half of my portion of the print sale proceeds to Palestinian Youth Movement.

SS: Congratulations baby! I think this is going to come across somebody’s desk who is going to hit me up after. I feel powerful in it.

SP: Powerful and sexy is the goal.

SS: I am in Chris Glazek’s house now, which was in a famous porno called. . .

Max Battle: Boys in the Sand.

SS: It's a very democratic setup here. I brought a recording device for Traktor/VirtualDJ, so I'm learning how to do that. I’m really just trying to vibe through the week before I go to Basel to launch my book Loogie.

SP: Are you going to the underwear party?

SS: Yes, I'm going in my Muslim men’s underwear. Blythe and I are maybe going to share somebody. She recognized this guy from X/Only Fans at the smoothie shop, and he was like: “It’s my first day at the smoothie shop! So if I fuck up your smoothie let me know.” Then I go to pay, and he says “look, I'm sorry about the smoothie... there's a lot of other things I do very well.” It’s ova… So yeah, it’s a sexually charged place.