Jordan Tate

(b. 1981; resides Bloomington, IN)

Rump Ranger, 2004

Buff the Banana, 2004

Muff Diver, 2004

Jordan Tate’s limed edition book A Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms defines 55 words and phrases, 27 of which include photographic illustrations. Always in a scholarly diction, the definitions begin with literal interpretations and end with the sexual slang sense, complete with example sentences and derivations. The pictures have a similarly straight-faced literalness which continues to veil the given sexual practice yet does much to illuminate the euphemism. While the text concentrates on sexual euphemism as it functions between men to define and maintain notions of masculinity, the images provide a visual interpretation that reinforces just how ridiculous, unsavory, and violent that language can be. Taken alone the images are often playful and clever, but joined with the text they work to provoke a surprisingly serious sociological investigation.

Jordan Tate was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a B.Phil in Interdisciplinary Studies from Miami University, Oxford, OH (2003) and is due to receive an MFA in photography in 2007 from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. His work is in the collections of UCLA Arts Library, Boston Public Library, University of Utah Marriott Library, Yale University Library, and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. A Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2007.

- Kendra Greene

http://www.jordantate.com/