story

Born in Augusta, Maine on August 19th, 1985, Fawn Dukes, was raised by her biological father and adoptive mother in nearby Hallowell, Maine. Fawn, full of energy from the very beginning, Fawn's mother endured thirty-four hours of grueling labor to birth a child from a man who had cheated on his wife several times (and still does, to this day) and would only see once again, fifteen years later. With no plans of keeping the baby to begin with, she was convinced to follow through with the pregnancy on the father's insistence that he would adopt the child himself and convince his wife to raise her as their own.

Fawn grew up in a tension-filled household with her parents and half-brother, Cotton, with whom she is particularly close to despite their difference in age. Where her brother had struggled socially in school, Fawn seemed to have no problem getting along with other students, even with her unusual name. After reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in high school, she picked up the moniker of Gatsby, which she still goes by (and understandably). She breezed through high school quite literally, having run cross-country all four years and being one of very few people ever to win the statewide championship four times, and had a handful of scholarship offers from several universities who were interested in her for her athletic ability. To Gatsby, however, running wasn't going to be a career for her. It wasn't worth the torn ACL she endured at the end of her freshman season or the knee pain at the end of the day, and her athletic career ended the day that she graduated.

Like her brother had, Gatsby would leave Maine for college and ultimately chose to enroll in Marlyand Institute College of Arts in Baltimore. MICA had secretly been her first choice of colleges during her junior and senior years of high school, even with all of the scouts and scholarship offers that rolled in. Gatsby did well enough in school but wasn't necessarily focused on academics; running and art seemed to be her thing. With a strong portfolio consisting of a mix of projects she had executed during high school, Gatsby was accepted to MICA and would graduate four years later with her BFA in General Fine Arts. Unable to decide on a specific medium to work with, she set up her own field of study and became well-versed in several types of media, photography being her favorite and what she spent the most time working with. She worked odd jobs to help get by throughout college, mostly documenting the large Baltimore club and rave scene. This eventually led her to Los Angeles, where she would spend a year working with The Cobra Snake as photographer at various parties. Gatsby spent the following year rather nomadic, traveling with a photography collective known as The Skullset and photographing their daily lives. With a strong, mixed portfolio to go with her, she began applying to "real" jobs, but it was difficult to find work for someone who had spent the past two years photographing people getting drunk every night. She was eventually offered a job as a freelancer at Refinery 29 in July 2009. To supplement her freelance work, she picked up a bartending gig and continued to shoot parties on every other occasion, this time as a freelancer with Guest of A Guest.

Bouncing around New York with various publications for a couple of years led to the development of a strong fashion photography portfolio. She had grown tired of the late, late nights roaming the far reaches of New York and the irregular hours she kept during the day whenever a magazine needed her to show up at a studio, but it wasn't enough to keep her from doing what she loved. She poured hours upon hours into perfecting her book and researching MFA programs, knowing that another degree wasn't necessary, but that this was for her own personal edification. She was eventually accepted to Parsons The New School for Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and California College of the Arts. Ultimately, she settled on RISD, and headed further northeast in May 2012.

For as put together as her professional (and now academic life) seem to be, her family life is another story. Though she and her older brother are close, he didn't take too kindly to her move to Providence, citing that he couldn't keep an eye on her. She no longer speaks with her parents thanks to their very loud disapproval of her return to school for what they think is a useless degree, and her biological mother was only in the picture for a fleeting moment. As such, she holds her head up high but puts up a guard in front of those she doesn't know well, only letting people in once she decides whether they can be trusted.

people

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