A collection exploring the pleasure and disgrace of trying by lens-based artist Jacob Faulkner. Born in San Diego, California, Faulkner obtained his BA in Artwork from the College of California, Los Angeles. Working primarily in images, video, efficiency, and set up, he’s occupied with constructions of masculinity, belonging, need, and restraint. In “Rowers” Faulkner turns his consideration to his collegiate rowing group to discover his personal relationship to the act of trying. Utilizing cropping as a software to manage the viewer’s gaze, Faulkner decontextualizes websites of spectacle and prioritizes peripheral moments, creating photos that intentionally exclude the athlete’s aim and, consequently, the motion usually used to justify our impulse to look. What we’re left with is just the will with out the alibi of funding within the sport:
“I play within the stress between managed bravado carried out for the digital camera and unguarded moments when teammates are unaware of my gaze. Tender photos of my teammates turn into surrogates for my very own eager for intimacy. Portraits of rowers drenched in sweat, sprawled on the bottom, and gasping for breath discover the erotic masochism of self-induced ache endemic to male sports activities tradition; this extra of exhaustion turns into a metaphor for the exhaustion of hegemonic masculinity.”
Jacob Faulkner participated in our 2026 Guide Award open name and made our shortlist.
