Jesse Egner: Disidentifications
Jesse Egneris a queer artist working primarily with photography. Often taking the form of playful and absurd portraiture of himself and other individuals, his work explores themes of queerness, disidentification, homonormativity, mental illness, and body neutrality. Egner was born in 1993 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BA from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and his MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2020. His work has been exhibited globally and has recently been included in exhibitions at Technische Sammlungen Dresden, ClampArt, Luciana Matalon Foundation, Photographic Center Northwest, Filter Photo, Columbia College Chicago, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, and others. His photographs have been featured in publications by PUBLIC Journal, Lenscratch, CNN, Float Magazine, Soft Lightning, Queer Photo Collective, Plataforma Minima, Maake Magazine, and others. He has participated in residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute and Bunnell Street Arts Center, and his work is included in the permanent collection at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts.
RR: Hello Jesse, thanks for joining us on DRP. For those who may not be familiar, could you give us a little background on your practice and where you are from.
JE: Thank you for having me and giving me the opportunity to share a little about myself and my work! I am a queer artist working primarily with photography. I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and am currently based in Brooklyn, New York. In my practice, I collaborate with other individuals to make absurd, humorous, weird, and/or uncanny portraits that explore various aspects of queer identities.
Growing up, I had been bullied for my body for almost as long as I can remember, which already made me feel like an outsider years before I realized I was queer. So, when I finally did start realizing I was queer, it frightened me. It was another thing to be made fun of for, to make me even more of an outsider. When I started to come out, I was hoping for a welcoming community where I could feel accepted. However, this isn’t what I found. For example, I remember when I first started making profiles on gay dating websites and apps, such as Grindr, I would come across the phrase, “No femmes, no fats,” proudly displayed on user profiles, determining my body as unwelcome. This put me in a complicated relationship with my body and my queerness.
After moving to New York City in 2018, I began to explore this relationship through my photography. I began taking self portraits—an action that felt aggressive towards myself due to my aversion to seeing myself. I realized, though, that through taking self portraits that were weird or absurd and often humorous, I was able to make self-portraits that went beyond my physical appearance, allowing me to explore something meaningful while regaining some agency and esteem for my self image. After working on self-portraits for a while, I began also photographing with others in a process that became very playful and collaborative while allowing other narratives and experiences to influence my work.
RR: There is a playfulness to your image making and work, but like you mentioned carries a more personal undertone that can be explored further. What kind of themes and thoughts do you wish to evoke?
JE: That playfulness is what I’m all about. I don’t think I’m good at making serious photographs. I have serious things I want to talk about, but saying them in a serious way just doesn’t feel right. At first, I want to evoke something like sarcasm and frivolousness, maybe some tongue-in-cheek flippancy. I don’t want to give the “whole picture,” either, but rather provide fragmented narratives or something that exists between reality and fantasy.
Then, when one explores further, I hope to elicit unease, precarity, or maybe some uncomfort, in some ways reflecting this complicated relationship I developed with myself, my body, and my queerness. This is especially the case with my self-portraits.
RR: Can you talk about what Disidentification means to you?
JE: I first came across the concept of Disidentification in José Esteban Muñoz’s book “Disidentifications.” I was immediately captivated by this idea of neither identifying nor counter-identifying with something, but rather, disidentifying in a way that works with and against a dominant ideology in order to subvert it. It’s so freeing.
Over time, however, disidentification became much more than that to me. I began thinking about my own methods of disidentifying and disassociating, and considering this precarious space between reality and fantasy which reflected my own thoughts and experiences towards my own (dis)identity. I think a good example of this is the use of humor and playfulness, which I feel aren’t so common in photography right now.
RR: I think community is an especially important component in your practice. Do you find yourself to work better in a collaborative environment or alone? Or equally?
JE: I’ve come to find that I need a balance between working collaboratively and alone. The collaborative nature of my work is one way that I’ve been able to establish a sense of community I always struggled to find. Working with others also allows us to tap into the level of play and intimacy that I can’t achieve when I’m alone. My collaborative photographs are rarely planned out beforehand and are truly the product of that time we spend together, from conception to execution. Something wonderful happens when having a playful and spontaneous shoot with another person. Ideas seed and then begin to develop further and evolve as they bounce back and forth between us and as we explore them together.
In my recent work, I’ve been considering the power dynamic that exists between photographer and subject, and how a collaborative, playful, and spontaneous process like this can begin to deteriorate this dynamic, with the other individual becoming an active participant in the photograph rather than a passive subject performing as directed.
However, I still need to occasionally return to working alone sometimes and make self-portraits. I often have concepts or themes I want to convey in my work that are too personal and shouldn’t be projected on anyone else. In some ways, I see my self-portraits as brief respites from my collaborations allowing for much needed self-reflection.
RR: What have you found that photography does best for your work? Where do you think it might also fail?
JE: What I love about “straight” photography is the indexicality it holds. There’s this understanding that what you see in the photograph at one time existed in front of the camera. I could easily make weird and absurd images through collage or digital manipulation, but I am fascinated by working within the confines of a “straight” photograph. Photography also works well with the spontaneity and playfulness I strive for in my shoots, while also allowing the ability to slow down and give more thought and care to each photograph taken.
I think one place where it fails lies in that power dynamic I mentioned. That dynamic is hard to push against. While photography is so ubiquitous and most people are familiar with having their picture taken in some way or another, everyone acts differently and has different levels of comfort once the camera is pointed at them. It can be hard to establish a proper connection with someone when a camera is between you. I think this is why some of my favorite photographs are the ones where I pose with the people I am photographing with, so we’re both performing for the camera together.
RR: How do you feel your work has been met within the community and spaces you occupy?
JE: I believe it has been met mostly positively, especially because of the collaborative nature of my work. As members of the communities and spaces I occupy are willing participants in this work, they hold connections to the work they wouldn’t have otherwise.
RR: Congrats on all your recent moves. I know you’ve been a part of some residencies across the U.S. Care to share any new topics, issues or work you are planning?
JE: Thank you! It sure has been an exciting year. I participated in a three month residency at the Santa Fe Art institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then a one month residency at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska. Later this year, I have another residency at Studio Vortex in Arles, France, and I also have a solo exhibition in the works for this fall!
During these residencies, I began a new series with the working title “Unaffixed,” in which I’ve been thinking about unaffixed states of being and the malleability of queer identities through continuing collaborative portraiture as well as self-portraits. I’m not quite sure where this new work is going quite yet, but I’m excited to see where it leads me!
RR: Thank you Jesse! I can’t wait to see what else you make.
JE: Thank you so much for having me! It’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you and sharing a bit about my work.