John Dugdale

John Dugdale (born 1960) is an American fine‑art photographer celebrated for his stirringly intimate imagery created through 19th‑century photographic processes and a sensibility that transcends time. Born in Connecticut, he received his first camera at age twelve and later studied photography and art history at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. By his early thirties Dugdale had built a successful commercial career—shooting for clients such as Bergdorf Goodman and Ralph Lauren—when an HIV‑related illness left him blind in one eye and with severely limited vision in the other. This loss ended his commercial work but liberated him to explore his personal artistic vision, enlisting friends and family as studio assistants.

Embracing large‑format cameras and historic techniques—cyanotype, platinum printing, and the albumen process—Dugdale composes portraits that feel both timeless and deeply poetic. Working largely from memory, he creates tableaux that evoke the 19th century, transporting viewers into another era while probing the very nature of perception. “The mind is the essence of your sight,” he explains. “It’s really the mind that sees.”

Dugdale has mounted over twenty‑five solo exhibitions worldwide and participated in group shows at institutions such as the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Miami Art Museum. His photographs are held in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. An inductee of the Royal Photographic Society, he has spoken on BBC and NPR and lectured at universities and public forums, continuing to champion his 19th‑century aesthetic and to question what it truly means “to see.”