Furry photog Tommy Bruce regroups post-pandemic
“I think I always feel like, for the work I make, it requires a little bit of context up front,” artist and photographer Tommy Bruce tells SFR. “I’m giving some of the history and the culture with straightforward documentary work, then showing more of the recent work that’s a little more studio-driven and…the aspects of the culture that I find interesting.”
What culture, you may ask? Furry culture—which, when boiled down to its simplest definition, is about anthropomorphized animal-based characters. There can be a sexual edge or not, but regardless, it’s a subculture that has long been the butt of lazier jokes from kink-shaming types.
Bruce has embraced the furry lifestyle and culture for over a decade, both with his white-tailed deer character Atmus, and as a documenter of participants, purveyors, observers and makers within the world of furries, its events, conventions and communities—as well as the people to whom Bruce has grown close while exploring within its constantly evolving existence. But whereas a reductive glimpse at furry life might come down to people in costumes, Bruce sees it more as a subject bursting with artistry, commentary and closeness among its proponents and practitioners.
“It’s very novel-looking, and a lot of people approach my photographs with a curiosity and a sense of humor—which is fine, because as an artist and as a person, I think it’s a very effective Trojan Horse,” Bruce says. “If you get people laughing and smiling, you get them interested, and then you can get to what you’re trying to say.”
Bruce does just that with his newest exhibit at Santa Fe’s Ellsworth Gallery, which opens this Saturday. In 2019 at Ellsworth, he delved into the aspects of his own fursona Atmus in a smaller show. This time out, Bruce goes wider with New Fauna, a series of photos from the last decade or so that provide more insight into Atmus and Bruce’s own journey, as well as glimpses into the lives of his fellow furries.
“Where I like to push people is to say, ‘Look at this fun thing, look at the possibilities in allowing yourself, as an adult, to have fun and not conform to a normal society which says you have to grow up and start being serious and you need to be afraid of your fantasies,’” he explains. “It will feel a little bit like closing a chapter so I can start the next one. I have plenty more plans and I’m excited to start making some work that reflects on the anxiety of COVID directly.”
Written by: Alex De Vore in the SF Reporter
Tommy Bruce: New Fauna Opening: 5 pm Saturday, May 22. Free.
Ellsworth Gallery,
215 E Palace Ave.,
989-7900
