Reviews/Essays

"Despite commonly held assumptions, complex visual treatments of straight male masculinity are hard to come by. One could even argue that artists avoid the subject, perhaps for fear of veering uncontrollably into the realm of homoeroticism, a trap of sorts that presents itself at both the most and least overt ends of the masculine continuum.

In light of this trend, Jason Hanasik’s (b. 1981) He Opened Up Somewhere Along the Eastern Shore is quite remarkable. Invoking the Soldier—commonly a tired, shop-worn masculine trope—Hanasik upends expectations, creating a beguiling portrayal of a gender (and military) in limbo, where individual men struggle to navigate the cultural expectations put upon them. Try as they might to contain it, emotion and vulnerability permeate the lives of Hanasik’s soldiers, Steven and Patrick, as they vacillate between the hyper-masculine world of military service and the more delicate reality of their home lives. Steven’s self-portraits, taken on duty in Iraq, show him in various states of composure, sometimes confident and collected, sometimes weary or mournful. Patrick’s expressions are more cautious, perhaps reflecting a self-consciousness about how the camera could cast him. Even so, Patrick’s surroundings betray his sensitivities—whether basking in a beam of sunlight or standing by his front door, complete with a “welcome” sign that bears an uncanny resemblance to him, Patrick’s softer side emerges tacitly from his shell.

The portfolio is also striking in that it occupies an indistinct sexual space very comfortably. Hanasik, who is openly gay, won his subjects’ trust to such an extent that, in portraying them as the multifaceted people that they are, he was allowed to photograph them in traditionally homoerotic poses—Patrick in bed, Steven in a meadow. It is a testament to Hanasik’s skill both as an artist and curator (since he did not take all of these photos himself) that these images do not tip the project into an overly sexualized realm. Rather, they serve to question not so much Patrick or Steven’s personal sexuality, but the relevance of the impulse to determine sexual preference in dry, finite terms, when so often reality is more complicated. Hanasik portrays his subjects, and by extension, men at large, as enigmatic conflations of seemingly opposing qualities: they are guarded, yet open; hardened, yet sensitive. His work questions our proclivities to pigeonhole and underestimate, encouraging us to find comfort in our ambiguities and emotion where we least expect it."

-Nima Etemadi, Assistant Editor at Aperture

"Among the newcomers, look for Jason Hanasik...all of whom are more than merely promising."

-Vince Aletti for The Village Voice

"Issues of sexuality have played a key role in Hanasik's previous work and again in these images there exists an uneasy, ambiguous interplay of eroticism and gender dynamics offset by the conflict between personal turmoil and the sense of public duty that is often part of life in the military. Hanasik's concern for the 'precepts of masculinity,' in particular, color these pictures as he explores the various roles men play in living up to society's expectations of manly behavior."

-Leona Baker reviewing "He Opened Up Somewhere Along the Eastern Shore" for Veer Magazine

"I remember, but only as someone who was able to watch from a safe distance, the horror of Vietnam, and what it did to the men and women of my generation: And the silence; all kinds of silence. It's excruciating to see it happening all over again."

-James Wagner of jameswagner.com
reviewing He Opened Up Somewhere Along the Eastern Shore

"With a unique ability to make the mundane stand out in a special way, Jason Hanasik is a photographer who brings an East Coast sensibility to West Coast themes, and the result is a perfect combination of the ersatz and the elegant."

- Bernadette Giacomazzo - SF Photography Examiner

"the work has an endearing eccentricity, one that reeled me in and made look closer. In short, it challenged my preconceptions and really got me thinking about how people in uniforms embody the ambivalent and at times fraught relationship between the individual and society. The idea that a group of soldiers can merge into a single body, be part of this kind of collective yet still subvert stereotypical gender codes is fascinating."

-Tim Clark of 1000 words
reviewing He Opened Up Somewhere Along the Eastern Shore

"Jason Hanasik, whose verdant Steven in a bed of flowers displays a light touch while grazing up against potentially unsubtle topics such as homoeroticism, militarism, and Andrew Wyeth–like Americana combinations of human and landscape portraiture. (Hanasik is fond of depicting figures in repose.)"

-Johnny Ray Huston of the SF Bay Guardian

"The choppy film, which seems to have been captured on a low quality camera phone, first seems playful, humorous and sweet. As time passes, it becomes clear the piece addresses heavier themes. In Atkins' opinion, it tells of the "the war on terror and gender and sexuality."

-John Sand reviewing In the Green Zone: November 2007 for mndaily.com at the North American Graduate Art Survey

"The subjects in Jason Hanasik’s photographs exude a kind of somber, world-weary strength that doesn’t seem to expect much anymore, but which achieves a kind of (cast in stone) transcendence simply by continuing to exist. Like some of the other work here, Hanasik’s people are presented largely without context, as if you sat down next to someone on a bus and he began telling you his life story. But since the particulars of a life are often used to discount the powerless, lack of background information can actually bring about a new attentiveness and sense of connection. The old paradox: sometimes the stranger on the bus will tell you more of his true story than he might ever bring himself to share with those closest to him."

-Ann Stapleton of Newpages.com

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