Lucene Drissell

Lucene Drissell is a photographer and interdisciplinary artist whose work considers gender, place, and the changing climate. Currently completing the junior year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts program, they approach photography as a way of recording how an artist sees the world, while remaining attentive to the social and environmental conditions that shape that view.

Drissell spent much of their childhood in rural communities where the arts were supported both locally and within their family. Their father, a college art professor, was an early influence on their education and practice. Although that influence informed their first years of study, Drissell has since worked toward forms and mediums that feel more personally aligned with their own interests.

Their route into photography began through modeling for a friend. During one outdoor shoot, they posed in a white dress in and around a local river. Near the end of the session, sitting in a patch of flowers by the water, they recognized that the experience had given them a renewed sense of possibility in art. About a year later, they shifted their focus to photography.

Formal training has helped them understand the traditions they now work within and against. Drissell began as a painter and draftsman before moving toward photography, and they see that foundation as essential. “You have to know the rules to break them,” they say. For Drissell, a structured learning environment offers the time, mentorship, and technical discipline necessary to develop photographic work with greater intention.

While photography is now their primary medium, Drissell’s practice remains interdisciplinary. They are interested in performance and installation, particularly in the ways they can change a viewer’s relationship to an image in a gallery setting. They also write, and do not regard different creative disciplines as rigidly separate. A project may begin in photography but develop through installation, performance, or collaboration if those forms better serve the work.

Gender is a central concern. As a nonbinary artist, Drissell describes gender as a constant presence in both life and work. Photography allows them to address how bodies, identities, and social expectations are seen, while also expanding the terms through which gender can be understood. The work does not treat identity as an isolated subject. Instead, it places gender within the larger visual and social worlds that people move through every day.

Climate change is another ongoing theme. Drissell’s experience of the issue is shaped by place: Midwestern winters in their childhood, followed by wildfires and heat waves in the Southwest. These conditions have made climate change a persistent part of their daily life rather than an abstract concern. Their work considers the relationship between environmental change and human experience, including the ways local conditions affect communities and individual perception.

Place is therefore not simply a setting in Drissell’s photographs. The local landscape, community, and atmosphere provide material for the work and influence its perspective. They find inspiration through ordinary observation, often taking long walks or driving into unfamiliar parts of their city. “Creative recharge comes in the form of getting a little bit lost and looking a little bit more closely at the world around me,” they explain.

Photography also suits the practical realities of their schedule. Drissell is able to make work alongside other commitments and sees creative practice as something that can be sustained through attention to small details, even when it takes place in limited free time. That flexibility supports a process grounded in observation rather than elaborate preparation.

Collaboration already plays an important role in their practice, and they intend to continue building projects with artists across disciplines. Their future interests include larger-scale collaborations with photographers, documenting performers, and working with writers, sculptors, and two-dimensional artists. The goal is not simply to combine mediums, but to create work that genuinely crosses their usual boundaries.

For emerging artists, Drissell’s advice is direct: stay with it. Progress, they note, develops through time and practice, even when a project is unfinished or not yet ready to be shown. Their own practice reflects that commitment: a sustained effort to look closely, continue learning, and make images responsive to the world immediately around them.