Contemporary artist Jess T. Dugan, whose work is currently on view at The Ringling in a show titled I Want You to Know My Story, says that they like to work “very slowly,” building a relationship with their subject over time. “It hinges on me and my subject having an emotional experience together, and it works best in the quiet and private,” says Dugan. That extended time together results in intimate, contemplative images that focus on what it means to be human while embracing the complexities that make people the individuals they are.

Dugan—a queer, nonbinary artist who now lives in St. Louis—says that the new exhibit exposes the “emotional and psychological dualities” of human experience. The gallery is designed with muted, warm tones, with a salon arrangement that includes a coffee table to encourage rest and reflection. In that comfortable setting, Dugan's intense portraits dare the viewer to allow the powerful subjects to be fully seen.

Those subjects include both Dugan and others, many of them from the LGBTQ+ community, posed either solo or in pairs in exterior and interior settings. The solo images illustrate the strength and resilience of each subject while simultaneously highlighting vulnerability and introspection. Still life subjects include florals, candles and quiet bedroom scenes, underscoring the human need to pause to feel nurtured and restored.

The presentation at The Ringling is unique and intentional. “I’m very interested in collaboration with the centers and curators,” says Dugan, 38. “My work is so personal, but I welcome outside interpretation and feedback.” Dugan says that when designing the show, they focused on “sequencing around emotion, color and gesture,” almost “like a musical score.”

The new exhibit draws on a series of ongoing work titled Look at Me Like You Love Me, which Dugan began in 2015. Using interior and exterior locales, Dugan's peaceful and intimate approach brings together friends, family and others within their circle. The technique creates what Dugan calls a “one-on-one kind of quietness and simplicity so the person comes through.”

Dugan’s still life images—such as Tulips, Candles or Early Morning Light, Boston—thread together ideas about the search for love, joy, community and acceptance amid struggle, loss, pain and division. “My use of still life is a way for me to talk about the impermanence of everything about time, meaning and life,” says Dugan.

Leaning into their expertise in art history, Dugan references the Baroque period by using striking natural half-light. Saturated colors showcase the direct gaze in interior portraits, as seen in the emerald-jeweled Elcid, while intensifying the subject's gaze or underscoring vulnerability with closed eyes, as in Naomi (Eyes Closed), in which the softly lapping pool is unable to obscure the glint of ruby-red swim shorts.

The interplay of water, reflection and the individual in repose is a common theme. “Water is a strong interest of mine, for very visceral reasons,” says Dugan. “Water is simultaneously stable and in constant motion. It functions as a metaphor for who we are as people”—similar to “fluidity around gender and identity.”

“Elcid is engaging; Naomi is a resting moment,” says Dugan. “The show is laid out in an emotional and poetic experience, and I think about the rhythm of the viewer as they move from image to image.” Dugan’s photographs allow the viewer’s reflection in the glass holding the artwork to be glimpsed before the viewer is pulled into the image itself.

In addition to photography, the exhibit also includes two short films: Letter to My Father and Letter to My Daughter. Dugan's personal filmed messages about estrangement from their father also cover the struggle to move on with their life, now as a parent. The deep well of angst, captured with a montage of Dugan’s childhood photos, suggests the power of forgiveness despite the murkiness of family dysfunction.

In Letter to My Daughter, Dugan expresses their heartbreaking experiences around becoming a parent with their then-partner, Vanessa Fabbre. Dugan says the work explores “my expectations around parenthood, the long and circuitous journey of trying to have a child with both known and anonymous sperm donors, the experiences of miscarriage and loss, and my adjustment to parenthood as a queer and nonbinary person.” They emphasize “the intensity of love between a parent and a child,” along with the “personal growth parenthood inspires and requires.”

Dugan says their work is “kind of my love letter to the world.” “What I'm after,” they say, “is to invite viewers to see parts of themselves, the self-reflection, and that there's a universal human underpinning in the work: our shared humanity.”

I Want You to Know My Story is on display at The Ringling through Feb. 22, 2025. For more info, click here.