Intensely controlled chaos
By Cate McQuaid
Globe Correspondent / March 24, 2010
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/03/24/julie_blackmons_photos_speak_of_intensely_controlled_chaos/go down page to:
Exploring gender
Jess T. Dugan's formal portraits of couples at Gallery Kayafas can also be unnerving. Every one of Dugan's subjects is a woman, was a woman, or wants to be a woman. Some are transgender. Others are not. Some fall into the category we identify as feminine; others do not.
The portraits can be confrontational: They have red backgrounds, and the subjects stare directly out at us. I found myself puzzling uncomfortably over those whose sex wasn't immediately evident; I'm still used to discrete categories when it comes to gender. "Lee and Gunner,'' for instance, are two round, short-haired people who balance feminine softness with a tough mien.
