Congratulations to Jess T. Dugan, who has been nominated for the Rudin Prize for Emerging Photographers! The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, has nominated four artists for its Rudin Prize for Emerging Photographers, a biennial award that gives $20,000 to an artist who has yet to have a solo museum show. Dugan was put up for consideration by artist Dawoud Bey.

Jess T. Dugan is an artist based in St. Louis, MO whose work explores issues of identity, gender, sexuality, and community. In her series Every breath we drew, she 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, her portraits examine the intersection between private, individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others.

View work from Every breath we drew

For over five years, photographer Jess T. Dugan and social worker Vanessa Fabbre traveled throughout the United States creating To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults. Seeking subjects whose lived experiences exist within the complex intersections of gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and geographic location, they traveled from coast to coast, to big cities and small towns, documenting the life stories of this important but largely underrepresented group of older adults.

View work from To Survive on This Shore