Abbey Drucker: Night Sessions
Abbey Drucker. FIGURE 8, 2023. Archival Pigment Print. Edition of 6. Courtesy of Abbey Drucker Studio.
Interview by Makenna Karas
Photo Edited by Kit Matthews
Femininity has long been falsely equated with weakness, self-pleasure with the taboo, and nudes with the male gaze. In her recent nude exhibition, “Night Sessions”, Abbey Drucker corrodes these notions by inviting women to embrace tenderness as a strength and take pleasure in their own bodies. On display at Fleur Du Mal, the exhibition will run through February 29, 2024 in SoHo, New York.
Makenna: I have been in love with this series from the moment I first looked at it. So I want to start by asking, what inspired the creation of it?
Abbey: I've always been enamored with the softness and delicateness of the female body as it has appeared throughout art. “Night Sessions” is the beginning of me openly sharing that love through my figure studies in a respectful way. All the women I worked with are burlesque dancers and performers, meaning they are very in tune with the erotic world and with their sensuality. It was very different from working with a typical art model because they specialize in moving their bodies.
Abbey Drucker. FIGURE 3, 2023. Archival Pigment Print. Edition of 10. Courtesy of Abbey Drucker Studio.
Makenna: I like that you point out the difference between using, say, a model who's been trained for the gaze of the camera as opposed to a dancer who's very much in touch with their own body.
Abbey: Absolutely. There is a distinct fluidity to these performers. They are on stage with the beautiful light and they are goddesses of their own. It really made me feel like there's this little bit of me in each of them.
Makenna: I've also noticed that there's also this beautiful relationship between nature and the divine feminine that runs throughout the images. Can you talk a bit more about what that relationship means to you?
Abbey: Yes. I was born and raised in New York, but I grew up going to summer camp in the mountains. I wanted to bring both of those worlds into one project. So we have this beautiful erotica, but then we have my flowers. The flowers on the bodies are projected from “Flowers from Lovers”, which I created during the pandemic. I went away and my best friend put flowers all over my apartment as a welcome home gift. As the flowers died in cycles, they became art. They were my models, my canvases, my everything. Some have water intentionally placed onto them as a symbol of bodily detoxification through tears, sweat, and cum. It's all about the detoxification that I did from 2020 to 2022. I knew exactly when to stop with the flowers because they didn't serve me anymore. And so being able to bring that growth onto these women was a full circle of an artist's creation method.
Abbey Drucker. FIGURE 1, 2023. Archival Pigment Print. Edition of 10. Courtesy of Abbey Drucker Studio.
Makenna: Beautifully said. What stands out about the flowers is the self-pleasure and the idea of honoring yourself. What is your message for empowering individuals, particularly women, to honor their own desires?
Abbey: That's a great question. I am not overly sexual, but I am a sexual being. It all comes from an intentional state of sensuality and honor that grew out of healing from heartbreak. Self-pleasure can be lighting a candle and sitting on a pillow and meditating. It's not all about masturbation. It’s just about being gentle with our souls and with ourselves. I feel this for every age, in all different stages of life.
Makenna: Absolutely. I’m studying a lot of nude portraiture right now and an issue that keeps coming up is how do you navigate dealing with a world so focused on the male gaze when you're putting out these portraits of nude women?
Abbey: I think that when your work comes from intention, it shows. Being an artist isn't just creating art, it's about digging and getting to the root of it, of "Why are you doing this?". I think it's my job as a woman. As for the male gaze, it’s about exploring. You don't have to go on your hands and knees to create beautiful, sexy photos. There are ways of photographing breasts and vulvas that could be so sensual that it will connect with a woman differently than a man. I love men, I do, but there is something special about creating a space where women can let their guards down. It’s something I love to do.
Abbey Drucker. FIGURE 9, 2023. Archival Pigment Print. Edition of 6. Courtesy of Abbey Drucker Studio.
Makenna: Well, I'm looking forward to what you do next. To end, if you had one final message for viewers to take away from “Night Sessions”, what would it be?
Abbey: Oh, that's a good question. Independence. The women stand alone in this series, there are no two bodies together. It was very important to me to convey that we are strong and independent, and capable of so many things on our own. The flowers projected onto their bodies came from pain, heartbreak, and evolution. It's not perfect, but they symbolize what we go through to be standing independent.
Abbey Drucker. FIGURE 5, 2023. Archival Pigment Print. Edition of 10. Courtesy of Abbey Drucker Studio.
Makenna: I love that. With a lot of feminism, there is pressure to be coarse and almost take on a masculine energy to feel that you have power in the world. But this is about embracing that you can be tender, that you need to be tender, because there is strength in that.
Abbey: That is exactly what it is. There are many different ways of being a feminist. You can be sexy, and you can wear a pencil skirt and heels, and you can be a badass woman running a company. This is for those women. Lingerie is often a secret little world that we have. Strong, powerful women wear lingerie and they are sexual. You don't have to look a certain way to be a feminist. Feminists who love my work are those who understand the sexual revolution.
Abbey Drucker. FIGURE 2, 2023. Archival Pigment Print. Edition of 10. Courtesy of Abbey Drucker Studio.
