Dru Donovan

When you look at a photograph made by Dru Donovan, questions immediately rise. You don't just sit there are say, " oh it's just three men getting extremely intimate and the two men on the outside are kissing the man in the middle's neck!"  "Just" is not a word that is used in the process of describing one of Dru Donovan's photos. She not only takes an idea and digs deep with it, but she presents it in such a way that more questions are asked by the viewer than answered. I think that's what Dru accomplishes best in her photos. Not only does she capture an intimiate situation in a remarkable way, but usually she is a third ( or fourth or fifth) party looking into a scene, which as the viewer of the photograph can gives off an odd vibe. It's not every day you see three men of different race openly kissing, but also, are comfortable enough to do it in front of a camera.

Not only is it conceptually appealing, but visually appealing as well. The choice of clothing of the darker man on the right is just perfect and is complimented by the wooden rails. As much as the subject matter can be uncomfortable to some viewers, it is so pleasing to look at. She captures something that might be considered " socially unacceptable" and makes it beautiful. I can't stop looking at it. I've looked at this photo for so long just admiring it's unique sense of beauty. It seems to me that Dru plans out the outfit's that people are wearing in her photographs, or at least making it seem purposeful which I think is extremely important.

The way she has the passed out boy in the middle, wearing stripes, works so well. This has potential to be a juvinial photo of someone just photographing a teenage scene, but the way she uses clothing, or positions the people in the particular clothing, shows how thought out this photo is. The two outside figure's attention is on the " middle man" in both photos. I really admire Dru's use of dense dark background in this photo. I think if the background in the first photograph was dark, it wouldn't be as strong, but i'm glad that she made that choice in this photo.
Dru takes intimate situations, and exploits it, just as she does in the photo of someone being manicured.
We over look something like a manicure being intimate, but the way she captures it from an areal view, makes it a much more bizarre concept. The photo changes the subject from a manicure to a photo about touch and intimacy, which is something I've never really thought about.