To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults
To Survive on This Shore is a collaboration between Jess T. Dugan, photographer, and Vanessa Fabbre, social worker and assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, whose research focuses on the intersection of LGBTQ issues and aging. For over five years, Dugan and Fabbre traveled throughout the United States seeking subjects whose experiences exist within the complex intersections of gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class and geographic location. The featured individuals have a wide variety of life narratives spanning ninety years, offering an important historical record of transgender experience and activism in the United States.
The exhibition includes twenty-two photographs, each paired with text illuminating the stories of those photographed. A hardcover catalogue (Kehrer Verlag, 2018; available here) accompanies the show and contains sixty-five portraits and texts as well as an interview with Dugan and Fabbre conducted by Karen Irvine, Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, IL. The exhibition and catalogue provide a nuanced view into the struggles and joys of growing older as a transgender person and offer a poignant reflection on what it means to live authentically despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
Documentation
Artists
Jess T. Dugan
Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986) is an artist and writer whose work explores the complexities of personhood, relationships, desire, love, and family through photography, film, writing, and drawing. Their work is informed by their own life experiences, including their identity as a queer and nonbinary person, and reflects a deep belief in the importance of representation and the transformative power of storytelling.
Their work is regularly exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of over 70 museums. Their books include Love Pictures, a survey book made in collaboration with Charlotte Cotton (Radius Books, 2026), Look at me like you love me (MACK, 2022), To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults (Kehrer Verlag, 2018) and Every Breath We Drew (Daylight Books, 2015).
They are the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, an ICP Infinity Award, and were selected by the Obama White House as an LGBT Artist Champion of Change. They currently live and work in St. Louis, MO.
Vanessa Fabbre
Vanessa Fabbre is currently Assistant Professor, The Brown School, Washington University, in St. Louis, MO, where she is also Affiliate Faculty in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and a Faculty Scholar in the Institute for Public Health. Vanessa Fabbre’s research agenda is driven by several core questions: What are the conditions under which queer and trans people experience wellness in later life? And what does it mean to age well in the context of heteronormativity, transphobia, and other oppressive social forces? Further, what does queer and trans liberation mean in an aging society?
Fabbre’s dissertation research explored gender transitions in later life, focusing specifically on experiences of queer time, failure, and agency in the life course. In collaboration with photographer Jess T. Dugan, Fabbre created To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults (jessdugan.com) which culminated in a book and traveling museum exhibition.
Touring
- Availability
- Available for touring upon request
- Exhibition Footprint
- 2,000 - 4,500 square feet
- Touring Details
- Single source lending for all objects and flexible layout
