Jack Pierson has long been revered in the fine-art world for his intimate, color-saturated photographs, along with his quick-hitting word sculptures, collages, drawings, and installation pieces. Recently, Pierson and his camera took on the high-fashion world, booking the spring 2012 Bottega Veneta campaign and a cover shoot with Channing Tatum for British GQ Style. But, the artist says, “it wasn’t a conscious [move], like, I’m going to try to hit this fashion thing.” For The Cut’s second-ever Depth of Field feature, we spoke with Pierson about some of his most memorable images to date and why, “on a certain level, yes, the mere act of taking the picture to [him] is sexual somehow.” Click ahead to see how his work has evolved from his exposures on the road in the eighties to his latest batch of commercial photos, accompanied by commentary from Pierson himself.