Tamara Dean’s artworks are murky and dim. Like smoke masking the eyes, or pupils straining to see at dusk, her images make us wonder about the central action. Like acclaimed photographers Nan Goldin and Bill Henson, many of her works talk about themes of transition. Laughing or crying. Lying or dying. Jumping or falling – we are never sure which. The implicit conflict is intentional.

In her works like Jump, for example, you get the sense you have glimpsed a private moment in life. A coming of age; a pivotal turning point – a violent fork in the road. Her next series, deals not only with transition, but with perception.

Jump 2013, from the series The Edge, Copyright Tamara Dean.

For About Face: Are you a boy or a girl? the series is made up of individual portraits. While any great portrait forces you to ask questions, we know from history that what lies beyond a great portrait, is a great story. And this time Tamara Dean has crafted these back stories from her imagination and from her subjects.

As an artist who specialises in fine art photography, her new body of work photographs women and men who cut an androgynous figure. “There is an arresting beauty in androgyny,” says Tamara Dean. “For me androgyny can be perceived as a universal face of humanity,” she says.

Meng. 75 x 100cm. Pure pigment print on cotton rag.

Making a deeper inquiry into the nature of the human spirit, each image lays bare Dean’s questions about gender’s influence on our perception of individuals. The artworks, which were all posed in disused terrace homes (thanks to a helping hand from BresicWhitney), will now be shown in a terrace house in Paddington.

Dean’s deliberate decision to shoot portraits in private homes and to present her work outside of the gallery context, is indicative of her pioneering spirit. While many people who work as artists often complain of the lack of arts funding or limited galleries for showing challenging (instead of commercial) work – few have the get up and go to take matters directly into their own hands.

“In this series I wanted to build on traditional ways of experiencing portraiture, bringing a sensory component to the works. The aim is to draw the viewer in, to discover the portraits on a more intimate level,” Dean says of her choice to shoot her subjects in dilapidated or uninhabited inner-city terraces. Her method of finding talent was also non traditional.

Grace. “As small children we played kiss and catch; I was always on the boys team and none of the kids questioned it.” 75 x 100cm. Pure pigment print on cotton rag.

“I approached the series by doing a call-out for models on Instagram. Each of my subjects put themselves forward for the series and wrote a par on how it feels for them to be perceived as androgynous. This text will accompany each work,” says Dean. The works, which were all shot in 2015, show just how much the artist learnt about the nexus between male and female qualities.

“Androgyny really challenges our cultural conceptions of the feminine and masculine. Questions like – “are you a boy or a girl?” or “are you a man or a woman?” – suggest that gender stereotypes, learned behaviour and cultural prejudices influence the way we perceive and relate to people” Dean says.

Dean’s knack for creating truly immersive environments is also on show in About Face. To enhance the experience of the works, Dean has introduced the element of scent. “The surface of each print is infused with the perfume/scent worn by the individual in the photograph, just to help to reveal a little bit more about my subject as individuals.”

The show opens May 5 for one night only and is presented by Sydney Contemporaries, the new art-in-homes initiative of 10Group. Tamara Dean is represented by Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney and Jayne H Baum Gallery, NYC. For all enquiries about these works beyond, please visit Martin Browne Contemporary.

Images courtesy of and copyright to, Tamara Dean.