(Photo: Gregory Harris)
Brooklyn-based photographer and filmmaker Jessica Yatrofsky has employed a sparse, muted, and– dare I say- poetic aesthetic that explores both male and female bodies and the gender politics that ensnare those bodies. Yatrofsky has previously released two photography books,
I Heart Boy and
I Heart Girl, that both utilized natural light, yearning gazes, and diverse body types to undermine traditional representations of masculinity and femininity.
Language has always been a part of Yatrofsky’s oeuvre, particularly in her video work. Her film Photography is a History of Masturbation was recently featured in the Museum of Sex exhibition NSFW: Female Gaze. In the video, an androgynous nude boy poses while a narrator, speaking in French, asks the viewer questions like, “Is all art beautiful?”
For a new poetry book, entitled Pink Privacy, Yatrofsky divorces herself from images entirely and gets lost in the written word. As with her visual work, the poems are sparse and direct. But in this medium, Yatrofsky relieves herself of the burden of her work being judged based on the bodies of her subjects. “With photography, I feel more guarded because it [depicts] other peoples’ bodies,” she says. “Poetry is just me. The snarky way that I look at the world.”
More →
