Harry Hanson ’12 needs no introduction. The photographer/filmmaker/provocateur sat down with the Argus to contemplate art, life, and the universe.

Argus: So you are a photographer. What have you been doing with photography at Wesleyan?

Hanson: Well, I’m a double film studies and photography major. My first semester [at Wes] I wasn’t taking any arts classes and I realized I was totally unhappy and that was what I needed to do.  So, the first class I took was Digital Photography, which was a little basic for me, and then I met Yannick Bindert ’11, who was the founder of Unlocked magazine.  He saw some of my pictures and asked me to submit them and one of them wound up on the cover.  Then, he was looking for more photographers and someone to take more of a management position on the magazine, so I jumped on that because I really like working in an editorial kind of environment.  Technically it was a submission-based magazine, but I am the kind of person who would rather do everything myself rather than delegate work to other people, so we procured a lot of the content internally while I was working there as the Art Director/Photo Editor.  Last fall I produced the entire calendar which came out in the beginning of last semester, and that was kind of like my last hurrah. I’ve also had photos published in Method and Swerved. Freshmen year, I took some photos for the Argus, and then I was approached to take the Photo Editor position and I did that with Charlotte [Robertson ’12]. We’ve actually collaborated a lot.  She and I worked together on the [Unlocked] calendar, so she was an important part of that. This year, I will be completing my thesis.

A: What’s your thesis?

H: It’s under wraps right now. What I have learned in taking photo classes at Wesleyan is that good photography is all about access and who and what you have access to, in terms of your equipment but also in terms of your subject matter. I’m really interested in people and character and presentation, so for my thesis I’m focusing on one subject.  I have an individual who has been a friend of mine for quite some time and has given me an “all access pass.” Oftentimes I have problems acquiring models because the things I want them to do are expletive or degrading or humiliating in some way.  I’m very lucky to find a subject who’s tolerant of my eccentricities.

A: So you’ve had problems with models in the past?

H: Look, I’m not about to tell anyone that they have to do anything for me, because, as the photographer, I understand that I am indebted to them. They’re helping me create this.  I think that I have a slightly darker sense of humor than a lot of people, and I’m also willing to push things a bit further than most people are willing to go in terms of taste. I think that I have a very good handle on aesthetic, and therefore I can push the boundaries of taste.

A: How do you push those boundaries?

H: I mean, conventional beauty doesn’t really interest me. I would work in fashion photography because it comes relatively easily to me and there’s money to be found in that sector, but when you’re working with professional models who are paid to be beautiful and are gorgeous, the photographer doesn’t have to do much thinking. I’m interested in grotesque beauty, where the viewer looks at the pictures and they’re like, “That’s disgusting, oh wait that’s gorgeous,” or the opposite: they’re like, “That’s really pretty, oh wait that’s actually disgusting.” Also, in terms of sexuality, I’m very much interested in the intersection between art and pornography.  I think that within our generation there’s going to be even more crossover between the two, and that’s something that I like to explore in my work.

A: Is your thesis going to explore this?

H: Yes. Yes absolutely. The subject of my thesis has actually done porn before. I wouldn’t quite say he’s a porn star yet, but we’re getting there.

A: Why did you start taking photos?

H: Well my dad was a photographer, which is actually really weird to think about.  You never expect to do what your parents are doing. I think I got my first digital camera when I was thirteen. In high school I was lucky—I had these two friends who were really skinny and really tall, and we’d go to thrift stores and buy outfits, and then I’d photograph them in public bathrooms wearing those outfits. That’s kind of when I realized that this is something that I really like to do. During my senior year of high school I was in AP Art and I did a concentration project in photography, and I think that’s when it got really serious for me.

A: Since you’re majoring in photo and film, do you ever find that the two intersect?

H: Because the film department here takes a theoretical approach rather than hands on, I’m actually making my first films for class only this semester. I’m taking Digital Production. I feel like film is a little bit easier, because I think that photos are so literal that to blur the line between fiction and reality is more difficult than it is in video. Because it’s a moving image, it’s so much easier to direct your attention and keep your attention that people are willing to make exceptions for film that they aren’t for photo.  I’m actually blind in one eye—I only have vision in one eye, so I see things like a camera.  Rather than relying on both of my eyes for depth perception, I rely on shadow and light cues for depth. I’d imagine that the way I compose the frame is quite similar [to a video camera], but I think that with photo there’s more finesse required.

A: Do you think your film studies feed your photography or vice versa?

H: There are certain situations where I’m taking pictures and I think to myself, “This would work so much better in a video.” I haven’t made that many films though. I wouldn’t say I am a filmmaker yet, but I’m getting there.

A: Do you want to be a filmmaker?

H: I’m the kind of person who likes to have their hands in a bunch of different mediums, and I’ve been working in photo because I have a great camera, and its something that I know how to do, and something that I’m able to do.  Also, because there were all these publications on campus, including The Argus, there was an outlet for that energy.  Film is a little more time consuming and difficult to do by yourself. The ideal end game for me would be to have my own production studio.  I could do editorial photography and I could do portraiture and I could make music videos or commercials. I’m very interested in production and writing as well.

A: Since you are so interested in the intersection between art and pornography in your photography, would you consider making it?

H: Absolutely. I’ve had conversations with my dad about this. He’s like, “Harry, I think you could be doing more than that. I think you could do better,” or “people aren’t gonnna take you seriously once you’ve gone in that direction.  You’ll just be that guy who does porn,” but I don’t think of it that way. Still, part of the bane of being a film major for me is that I can’t really watch produced porn because I’m so distracted by how bad the lighting is and how bad the editing is and how tacky the sets look, so I have to watch amateur porn. But I think it would be great to have porn that appealed to aesthetic and not just to carnal desires. I actually had a conversation with [film department head] Jeanine Basinger about this recently.  I asked her if she thought that within my generation there would be more of a crossover between porn and Hollywood. And she said, “If you asked me five years ago I would have said absolutely not, but these days I’m not so sure.” What she said in addition was that the ability to find a mainstream audience for porn is dependent on cultural values. I think that because we grew up with the Internet and porn has been so much in our faces, it seems so natural and so it seems eternal.  Porn is eternal.  It’s a more casual subject. I’d like to think that someone would be able to look at porn film I made and say, “Oh that’s an industry and people are making money there.” I want them to think that porn is an industry, and it’s just as viable as making any other kind of film.

A: Why do you want to make porn and how would you like to see that industry grow?

H: I tell people that I’m gay because that’s easier but if you really wanted to get into it I would identify as queer. My mother is actually writing a book right now about raising me and what that was like.

A: How does that feel?

H: I told her I’m not going on Ellen DeGeneres with her.  She can hawk her book—I’ll stay at home and cheer her on. Oh and I told her she can’t use my last name. I have a good relationship with my mom. I trust her…. I was never a gender normative individual. I wore skirts to kindergarten and I was stealing my mother’s lipstick when I was three.  It’s not about sexuality necessarily, though I think once it becomes a public dialogue it’s very much about sexuality.  For me, it’s more about playing with ideas of masculinity and femininity and how those qualities aren’t specific to either men or women, or at least they don’t have to be anymore.  I’ve always been interested in depictions of sex because it really is something that everyone’s thinking about all the time, or at least it feels like it, or at least that’s what they want us to think, whatever! Whatever it is, it’s everywhere. And I guess I really like the fact that porn makes people uncomfortable and porn pisses people off, because what, you’re so uncomfortable with yourself and you’re so uncomfortable with your own sexuality that you can’t appreciate something in this? You can’t admit it turns you on?  You can’t admit it’s appealing in some way even if it’s superficial? I guess I like being controversial. Is controversial the right word? I like pushing the envelope a little bit. If I can keep myself guessing, I can keep the audience guessing in terms of what’s next and what I’m gonna do. I’ve also been inspired by directors and photographer that confront sexuality head-on, like John Waters for example.  He had this scene in “Pink Flamingos” where two characters literally fuck a chicken to death and it blew people away.  I also just think it’s really funny.  I think sex is so funny! A lot of porn is really funny. Bad porn especially, but even good porn can and should be funny.  I think that that I’m able to find humor in almost everything, especially sex.

A: Is your goal in your art to shock and unsettle and make people question?

H: I think that raising questions is a great thing that not enough people are willing to do.  It’s much easier to make a film that people leave feeling happy.  That’s what producers want, that’s what people think they want and that’s what advertisers want.  They just want everyone to be happy. They don’t want to offend anyone.   But I think art stagnates when you try to stay within some parameters of taste, and taste is so subjective. People have this idea of trying to appeal to the mass audience. Well, who is the mass audience? The lowest common denominator? That’s not my target audience.  That’s not who I’m shooting for.  If some people like my work because they think it’s hilarious, that’s great.  If some people like my work because it’s sexy, that’s also great.  And if it makes people uncomfortable, then at least I got a reaction, at least they responded somehow.  I think that the last thing I’d ever want is for someone to look at my artwork and think, “That’s nice.” I can think of no worse fate than just being nice. Nice isn’t interesting. You don’t want to date anyone who’s nice.

A: You seem to have a really good relationship with your parents. Do you think that you would be who you are without their support?

H: Absolutely not. My parents were absolutely fundamental in developing my self-esteem and letting me know I could do whatever I wanted and be whoever I wanted to be. I have to imagine that even if I didn’t have their support, I’d be pursuing my own vision and things that are in my head, but who knows what would even be there if they hadn’t fostered that creativity. I was really lucky that they enrolled me in art classes and acting classes and that my dad let me play with a video camera when I was, like, ten. I filmed a Saturday Night Live in my living room. It’s weird looking back on that. I feel like in college people tend to do a lot of looking back on their childhood, because it kind feels like the end of your childhood, and I’m deeply grateful for my parents. Freshmen year I got really stoned and watched “Fantasia” and I had to write this email about how much I loved them. It was really goofy. Yeah, they’re great and I wish that everyone could be so lucky.

A: You were enrolled in acting classes, have you ever considered live performance as a medium?

H: Yeah, I love live performance. I’m a drag queen as well.  I can show you my wardrobe if you want [Author’s note: I did want, and he did show me, and it was awesome and sparkly]. I said I like controversy, but I guess what I really like is attention.  It’s not so much about being controversial, but as long as everyone is looking at me that’s fine. When I do drag it’s all about empowerment. That’s why I love performance because you have all that attention and everything on you.  It’s very empowering. I feel like I could kick everyone’s ass when I’m in drag.

A: Do you do drag on campus?

H: Yes. I actually don’t do it as often as I’d like. I still have gowns I’ve never worn. In the past, I’ve done it for Halloween, for Rocky Horror [a shadow cast performs “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the end of every semester] and for queer prom.  Last year Queer Prom didn’t happen, and this year I’m not doing Rocky Horror and I’m not sure if I’m gonna do drag on Halloween because it means I can’t hook up with anyone and…

A: Why can’t you hook up with anyone?

H: I wouldn’t smudge my lipstick! I don’t fetishize drag. I think a lot of people who do it and people who admire it, fetishize it. For me it’s about the performance, and it’s about empowerment, and it’s about not letting girls wear all the fun clothes. ‘Cause everyone knows girls get to wear the fun clothes! There’s actually this guy I was hooking up with for a while who was really into me in drag and I broke it off with him because it weirded me out a little bit. But if the money is right…

A: So drag isn’t sexual for you.

H: I’m very sexual when I’m in drag. I’ll ask you how your cock is doing today. I’m not afraid. Because drag is consciously fucking with gender.  It’s both above gender and without gender and it raises all kinds of questions with people.  It kind of inevitably winds up being sexual. You wind up having sexual conversations.  It’s in a way wearing a mask; you feel liberated to embrace a more sexual side. That might sound contradictory.  I don’t take it to a level of intimacy but it is sexual nonetheless.

A: Is it more about becoming another person, or about feeling liberated to be more of yourself?

H: I think that within the drag queen community, at least the experience that I have with girls I know in New York, they absolutely treat it as a separate identity. It is a character that they have cultivated and rehearsed and the wig comes off when they walk in the door. They don’t take their drag home. Going with my tendency to not do thing the way everyone else is doing them, my drag is very much part of myself. Sometimes I don’t even shave. My voice changes a little bit, but it’s also kind of the voice I use when I’m talking to someone I really like. To be honest I haven’t done drag enough to be on the level where it’s a separate character I can step into. I have the aesthetics down, and I have the wardrobe, I can assure you, but I’ve never performed at a bar.  I’ve never performed for tips and traditionally that’s a very important part of being a drag queen that I haven’t experienced yet.  I wouldn’t say I have my training wheels on, but I wouldn’t say I have my crown either.

A: Do you think that everyone, especially girls, put on a kind of a drag? We all dress up, we all talk differently to people we’re interested in, we all wear makeup and we act a little differently when we do.

H: Ru Paul has this great quote. He says, “You’re born naked and the rest is drag.” My friend Nolan wrote this paper called, “Women Don’t Exist” and it was about how this idea of femininity was created by men and since drag queens are able to embody femininity in a way that women most of the time cannot, there’s no no need for women to exist. It was an… interesting proposition. I’m not saying I agree with it, but I’ve certainly felt like a teenage girl sometimes, even though I’ve never been one, but I can’t imagine the effect media has on your image. Feminism…just talking about it makes me want to throw my hands up and walk away.  I love it, it’s great, I’m totally down, but when it gets to that level of discourse, like, don’t be an asshole. Just stop it. You can throw around rhetoric as much as you want, but it comes down to people and how people relate to people. I’m very interested in the way people express masculinity and femininity. And I think that it all is drag. We all perform. Definitely whether we like to admit it or not, there’s a lot of performing going on.

A: Does your drag influence you work?

H: Yeah, I was talking earlier about blending reality and fiction and that is absolutely one of my interests.  It really appeals to me because I’ve very interested in superficiality and performance. Drag comes from me and I influence my work. Themes of sexuality and gender deviants kind of inherently pop up in my work, because, I’ll admit it, I’m a gender deviant! What can I say? I’d say it’s an inherent and cyclical relationship. I inspire my art, my art inspires me. Part of the reason I like performance is because I like things that are flashy and things that catch your eye and those things pop up in my work.

A: What do you plan to do in the future, at Wes, and beyond?

H: I’m quite confident I’ll be in New York after graduation. Two summers ago I worked at Cosmo. Last summer, I worked with a really small production company with one photographer, and I was basically her only employee.  What I realized is that I would much rather prefer to work with a small business.

A: Have you given up on photojournalism?

H: Yes. Well, ultimately I’m interested in portraiture. What’s more interesting than people? Nothing. As long as I’m taking pictures of individuals I remain interested in it. Photojournalism is a little less glamorous. I’m a little glamorous. And also what I don’t like about journalism is that there’s this like code of ethics that is assumed or implied. No one in fashion cares about ethics at all.  They couldn’t give a rat’s ass about ethics. I feel like I fit in better there.

A: With the lack of ethics?

H: Yeah, a lack of ethics and questionable taste. That’s the aesthetic I’m going for!