Zackary Drucker
Distance is where the heart is, home is where you hang your heart, #13

2011
digital pigment print on paper
24 x 36 in.
2014.144
Gift of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Distance is where the heart is, home is where you hang your heart, is a photo essay collaboration between artists Zackary Drucker and Amos Mac. This series serves as a conversation between Drucker, a trans woman, and Mac, a trans man, as they explore sexuality, gender identity, and spectacle. Set in Drucker’s hometown of Syracuse, NY, the elements of small town America are combined with an editorial style to showcase Drucker’s childhood experiences as they relate to gender. This specific image captures Drucker standing in the middle of a snowy high school football field. She is wearing an open fur coat showing off her bare chest, chain necklaces, and a furry hat. She stares down the camera with her piercing blue eyes. Her stance and outfit directly contrast the small hometown football field and show how out of place Drucker felt while growing up because of her struggle with gender identity. Drucker is the female spectacle, beautiful and delicate, but also encourages the viewer to think about who they are looking at by confronting the viewer’s gaze. This piece is a beautiful exploration of young experiences with gender identity for transgender youth.

Sarah Swan-Kloos ‘21
Lasting Legacy 2021



As a trans woman, the lack of representation has weighed heavily on Drucker. She confronts societal limitations on gender and sexuality, and explores the differences between seeing and looking. Using portrait photography and her own experiences, she plays with the relationship between artist, viewer, and subject, and confronts the issues of representation head on. In this particular self-portrait, Drucker is willingly putting herself on view in order to be looked at. Even though she is placing herself in this vulnerable position at a center of male power in her formative high school years, she now holds the power. By taking a photo of herself, by looking directly back at the audience, and by sexualizing herself, Drucker is simultaneously confronting the audience and inviting them to look at her on her own terms. In this case, the artist is inserting herself into visual culture and claiming a place at the table, which loudly states “I am here.”

Margaret Lindahl ‘19
Lasting Legacy 2019