Jock Sturges

With his background in perceptual psychology, Jock Sturges aims to reach the heart of his subjects; his color and black-and-white photographs capture people in the fullness of their beauty, individuality, and dignity. In his celebrated work, he focuses primarily on portraits of nude adolescents and their families. These images scandalized conservatives during the culture wars of the 1990s in America. The artist is known for developing deep bonds of trust, friendship, and collaboration with his subjects, many of whom he has photographed for decades, chronicling their growth from childhood into adulthood. “I don’t exist without my models, without the people in my pictures,” Sturges once said. “Even my best photograph of them is nevertheless the palest imitation of the miraculous soul that is the real person.”