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Every Breath We Drew
By Suzanne Cohen
The Cornell Fine Arts Museum on Aug. 15 will debut “Every breath we drew,” an exhibition by acclaimed artist Jess T. Dugan. The show is the first museum exhibition of this body of works. According to Cornell curator Amy Galpin, “Jess Dugan’s works, recently featured in The New York Times, possess juxtapositions of the universal and the personal. They are at once about the issue of human dignity and also the intimate relationship between artist and subject. While Dugan’s works belong to a history of portraiture in their composition and construction, they are distinctive and profound on their own.”
Jess T. Dugan, Devotion, 2012, pigment print. All images are courtesy of the artist, Gallery Kayafas and Catherine Edelman.
For nearly a decade, Dugan has been making photographic portraits that explore issues of gender, sexuality, identity and community from a highly individual and humanistic point of view. Her ongoing series Every breath we drew explores the power of identity, desire and connection through portraits of herself and others. Working within the framework of queer experience and from her actively constructed sense of masculinity, Dugan’s portraits examine the intersection between private, individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others. She photographs people in their homes, often in their bedrooms, using medium- and large-format cameras to create a deep, sustained engagement, resulting in intimate and detailed portraits.
Jess T. Dugan, Erica and Krista, 2012, pigment print.
Dugan has combined formal portraits, images of couples, self-portraits and photographs of her own romantic relationship to investigate broader themes of identity and connection while also speaking to private experience. The photographs of men and masculine individuals act as a kind of mirror; they depict the type of gentle masculinity Dugan is attracted to, yet also the kind she wants to embody. Similarly, the photographs of relationships speak to a drive to be seen, understood and desired through the eyes of another person, a reflection of the self as the ultimate intimate connection. Through beautifully intimate and honest portraits, Every breath we drew engages larger questions about how identity is formed, desire is expressed, and intimate connection is sought.
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Jess T. Dugan, Boots, 2013, pigment print.
The artist’s choice of large-format photography is significant for its historical reference to classical portrait photography. By using a more traditional format to look at a very contemporary and complex subject, she is inviting a sustained look from viewers who might otherwise shy away from the subject matter, asking them to engage with our shared humanity across borders of gender and sexuality.
Jess T. Dugan, Tariq, 2012, pigment print.
Dugan earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a Master of Liberal Arts in museum studies from Harvard University, and a Master of Fine Arts in photography from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art; Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago; Grey House Gallery in Krakow, Poland; Griffin Museum of Photography, Gallery Kayafas and Carroll and Sons Gallery, all in Boston; Michael Mazzeo Gallery in New York; JDC Fine Art in San Diego; Jennifer Schwartz Gallery in Atlanta; Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in Albuquerque, N.M.; the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University; and at many colleges and universities nationwide. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums, Birmingham Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, DePaul Art Museum, Fidelity Investments, JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, and Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Her work is also included in the Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
Jess T. Dugan, Ely, 2011, pigment print.
“Jess T. Dugan: Every breath we drew” opens on August 15th and will be on view through January 3rd, 2016, at Cornell Fine Arts Museum. Rollins College is located at 1000 Holt Ave. in Winter Park, Fla. 32789 / www.rollins.edu/cfam.
Suzanne Cohen is an arts writer based in Orlando.
