{"id":10209,"date":"2019-01-30T22:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T03:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10209"},"modified":"2019-01-30T22:30:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T03:30:56","slug":"jess-dugan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/01\/30\/jess-dugan\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Jess T. Dugan: \u2018My interest In Gender And Masculinity Comes From My Own Process Of Defining Gender For Myself\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jess T. Dugan<\/a> says the photos in her series \u201cEvery Breath We Drew\u201d<\/a>\u2014on view at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts, from Jan. 14 to March 16\u2014add up to \u201ca long-term portrait project that looks at identity, sexuality and gender. It\u2019s very subjective.\u201d It\u2019s rooted in her personal experience, travels, people she meets. \u201cIt\u2019s about a larger way of being in the world, or a larger sense of identity.\u201d (Dugan speaks at Montserrat on Jan. 31 at 11:20 and 6 p.m. before a 7 p.m. reception.)<\/p>\n

Dugan is best known for \u201cTo Survive on This Shore,\u201d a series of photographs and interviews with transgender and gender nonconforming older adults that Dugan did in collaboration with Vanessa Fabbre, Dugan\u2019s professional and romantic partner.<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Betsy,” 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cEvery Breath We Drew\u201d exhibition features 15 photos\u2014solo portraits, some couples, still-lives. Dugan photographs Betsy standing leaning against a counter in a kitchen, Connor standing topless with a pregnant belly, Hunter and Jeffry seated in a living room, Jamie bathing in a tub and coming out of a pool. \u201cThe identities range pretty broadly,\u201d Dugan says, not all the people are queer or trans.<\/p>\n

One photo shows Dugan, arms raised, staring into the camera. Another photo shows Dugan\u2019s back reflected in a mirror. \u201cI\u2019m interested in the viewers knowing who I am and what I look like behind the camera,\u201d Dugan says.<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Boots,” 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other images portray two pillows stacked on a bed, two pairs of jeans thrown over a chair, two pairs of black boots standing next to a bed. These pairs of objects are intended as visual metaphors about the desire for relationship. \u201cThese are the boots my partner and I were wearing when we met.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2013 photo shows Fabbre laying on her back on a bed smiling as Dugan leans in to kiss her. Dugan says, \u201cI took that shortly after we met. I have always included myself in my work. That was actually the beginning of me photographing Vanessa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy identity is an important part of my work,\u201d Dugan says. \u201c\u2026I identify as someone who is queer and gender nonconforming. I am female, but my presentation is more masculine. I had chest surgery, but I\u2019m not transitioning to male. \u2026 I\u2019m very at home in my body and my life, but still socially that can be a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Jess and Vanessa,” 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dugan says, \u201cI\u2019ve essentially always looked this way. I grew up with a heightened awareness around identity because my gender wasn\u2019t what people expected. \u2026 The thing that felt at home to me wasn\u2019t acceptable to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dugan was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, and grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. Dugan came out as gay while in high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Dugan moved at age 13. She \u201cfound a lot of validation in photography,\u201d Dugan says. \u201cI believe representation is very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dugan studied photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston then museum studies at Harvard University. She started photographing \u201cEvery Breath We Drew\u201d in 2011 when she left Boston for graduate studies at Columbia College in Chicago. The following year there, she met Fabbre and they began a romance. In 2014, they moved to St. Louis, where Fabbre found work as an assistant professor at Washington University.<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Hunter and Jeffry,” 2012.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy interest in gender and masculinity comes from my own process of defining gender for myself,\u201d Dugan says. \u201c\u2026In some ways, I think of this project as an extended self-portrait\u2014who I\u2019m interested in, the kind of moment we create together, the way they look at me, the way I look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m almost always [photographing] in people\u2019s private spaces,\u201d Dugan says. \u201cIt allows for a more personal interaction. They\u2019re more comfortable. Intimacy. Closeness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI work slowly when I\u2019m creating portraits. \u2026 I try to slow down the moment,\u201d Dugan says. She used a bulky 4×5 view camera for a decade until switching, in 2013, to a medium-format digital camera. Some of the more recent photos were photographed outside and late in the day, with intense lighting. Dugan wants the people looking directly into the camera with a pose, a gesture that speaks to their personalities. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me in this work that people are in this moment with the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Jamie (pool),” 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dugan seeks to photograph \u201cpeople who can remain open and vulnerable and gentle.\u201d People who \u201creject pieces of social expectation that don\u2019t work for them. I\u2019m more interested in people who expand definitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really interested in people who have chosen to fully live as their authentic selves rather than rejecting that or minimizing that to fit into society,\u201d Dugan says. \u201cThere are so many ways our culture pressures us to conform in some way. I\u2019m interested in the kind of freedom that comes when you don\u2019t do that. But loss also comes. \u2026 I\u2019m interested when people have chosen to push through and get to the liberating side, even when it\u2019s challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Self-portrait (muscle-shirt),” 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jess<\/a>
Jess T. Dugan, “Jeans,” 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jess T. Dugan says the photos in her series \u201cEvery Breath We Drew\u201d\u2014on view at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts, from Jan. 14 to March 16\u2014add up to \u201ca long-term portrait project that looks at identity, sexuality and gender. It\u2019s very subjective.\u201d It\u2019s rooted in her personal experience, travels, people she meets. \u201cIt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[58,325,277],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10209"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10225,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10209\/revisions\/10225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}