Zackary Drucker & Rhys Ernst - Relationship

2016, English, USA, Zackary Drucker,

Full title: "Relationship" by Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst.

The book Relationship by Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst stands as one of the most intimate and revealing artistic collaborations of the 21st century. It captures a six-year span of love, transformation, and shared creativity between two groundbreaking artists who challenged the boundaries of gender, art, and identity. Within its pages, photographs, video stills, letters, and personal mementos blend into a vivid visual diary that blurs the lines between public and private life. What begins as a love story between two people evolves into an artistic exploration of what it means to change, not just in body but in spirit, and what it means to see oneself and another through the shifting lenses of identity.

 

Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst met at a moment when both were beginning profound personal transformations. Drucker, a trans woman, and Ernst, a trans man, fell in love and became creative partners in both life and art. Their relationship unfolded at a time when conversations around transgender identity were beginning to reach mainstream visibility, but far from simply documenting transition, Relationship delves into the emotional, psychological, and aesthetic experience of two artists reshaping their realities. Together, they turned the camera inward, revealing not only their changing bodies but also the subtleties of intimacy, self-discovery, and mutual recognition.

 

The images in Relationship were first shown publicly as part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial, one of the most prestigious exhibitions of contemporary American art. The New York Times called the series “extremely provocative,” yet what made it so was not shock value but honesty. Drucker and Ernst made themselves both subjects and creators, performing their lives in front of the camera with a raw vulnerability that recalls the work of artists like Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, and Cindy Sherman. Through images of simple daily life, lounging by the pool, celebrating anniversaries, sharing quiet mornings, they constructed a portrait of love that is as universal as it is specific to the transgender experience. In doing so, they reclaimed representation from voyeurism and transformed self-portraiture into a tool of truth-telling.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Relationship is how it intertwines autobiography with ambiguity. Drucker and Ernst allow the viewer to witness their transitions not as fixed before-and-after moments but as continuous acts of becoming. Male becomes female, female becomes male, and life becomes art. Their work refuses to separate emotional evolution from physical change. It shows how gender transition can be both deeply personal and profoundly relational, an act of courage that redefines love itself. The photographs are neither clinical documentation nor theatrical performance; they exist in a tender space where art and intimacy merge, where every image is charged with both self-recognition and self-invention.

 

Zackary Drucker’s own journey provides essential context for understanding the depth of this work. Born in 1983 in Syracuse, New York, she grew up with progressive parents who encouraged her individuality. From a young age, she sought to understand gender beyond traditional binaries, finding inspiration in the writings of thinkers like Kate Bornstein. After earning her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Drucker began developing an artistic voice that challenged the way audiences perceive gender and sexuality. Her work has since been exhibited in leading museums, including the Museum of Modern Art PS1, the Hammer Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

 

Drucker’s artistic philosophy extends far beyond personal expression. She considers the act of discovering, preserving, and sharing trans history to be both an artistic opportunity and a political responsibility. This sense of mission has shaped not only her visual art but also her work in television and film. She was an Emmy-nominated producer for the docu-series This Is Me and served as a consultant on Amazon’s Transparent, where she worked to ensure authentic trans representation both on-screen and behind the scenes. Later, she co-directed HBO’s The Lady and the Dale, bringing to life the story of Liz Carmichael, a trans woman whose ambition and controversy became part of American folklore. Throughout her diverse career, Drucker has remained dedicated to expanding empathy and understanding through art.

 

When Relationship was first exhibited, it stood apart from traditional narratives about transgender lives, which often focused on tragedy or alienation. Instead, Drucker and Ernst presented an image of love and ordinariness, two people sharing breakfasts, smiles, and glances, navigating the complexities of their changing selves together. It was a radical act to show trans people not as symbols or subjects of debate but as artists and lovers. Even after their romantic relationship ended, both have continued to speak of the project as an enduring testament to the beauty and humanity of trans existence.

 

The photographs in Relationship also reflect the larger social shifts occurring in the early 2010s, when transgender visibility was increasing but understanding remained incomplete. By turning the camera toward themselves, Drucker and Ernst invited audiences to look closer, to see not transformation as spectacle but as truth. Their work anticipated a cultural moment where gender could be viewed as fluid, relational, and self-defined.

 

Ultimately, Relationship is more than an art book. It is a meditation on love, identity, and the courage to be seen. It challenges conventional notions of what it means to document a life and redefines intimacy as an act of artistic resistance. Through its deeply personal lens, it invites viewers to question how we construct our identities, how we love others through change, and how we might learn to accept the multiplicity within ourselves. In the end, Drucker and Ernst remind us that relationships, romantic, creative, and personal, are never static; they are living works of art in constant evolution, just like the people who create them.

Available via amazon.com

Photo by Ayjahlanders13 via Wikipedia and @lukegilford via Instagram.

 

Other related sources: