I am an A Level student currently studying at Hautlieu School. My subjects include, Media Studies, Photography and History. My blog includes updates of my current work in both media and photography where I am able to show research, planning and experimentation. I update this blog weekly with different posts relating to my subject topics.
I have taken a lot of inspiration from Film Noir films and decided that it would be a fun idea to recreate the image of these women and mimic the way they are and the way they are represented, cliches. I have taken inspiration from Cindy Sherman for this as I am going to be a different persona in each photograph and slightly exaggerating the way Femme Fatales were represented. Although they were seen as strong and independent, to me the women are represented in a negative light as if being independent and not needing a man makes you a work of the devil, a temptress. This shows how these women were there for the male gaze and brought some diversions into the films with the inevitable death of the Femme Fatale at the end of the movie. These women were always meant for the male gaze and made to be unnecessarily seductive and made out to be something like a witch that puts a spell on the man and tries to purposely steer him off the course to possibly further his career or development as a character. Femme Fatales are shown as enchantresses.
Possible titles for entire project [and/or shoot]:
enchantress – enchanteresse [translation to french]
temptress – tentatrice [translation to french]
“He keeps me on a leash so tight I can’t breath” [possible title of series of images]
For these images I wanted to incorporate the work of Barbara Kruger with Cindy Sherman and the staging of famous film noir images of femme fatale women. I will also be adding quotes from things that I have heard people say or just with the expectations placed on women. I want these images to look like posters, something that would be up in your wall with a sarcastic feel to it. I really enjoyed editing these together although at first none of them looked anything special but after I got experimenting they started to come out exactly how I wanted them to. I made up all of the phrases myself just like Kruger did when she picked images that other photographers had taken to make her own art. I used my own images and my own text just because that is the way I wanted to do it as well as experimenting with different film noir dame personas.
Experimentation:
Femme Fatale experimentation
I wanted to create strong images with strong and clear messages on them. These are all my own thoughts, text and images. I want to make this work authentic and not coming from someone else. I like the bluntness of my text as it stands out and really captures the attention of the spectator, which is what this project is all about. I like the images that I have created and don’t want to make too many more as these ones are strong on their own and too many might become slightly repetitive and irritating. I like these images as they do remind me of the work of Barbara Kruger but my images and text is a lot more directed at feminism and being a woman whereas Kruger’s work varies into other movements and categories too. The image at the bottom is an experiment that I have had in mind since I started on my film noir project and wanted to include it in my work. This one is my favourite as it is something that I wrote and performed myself, I wanted to do a parody of what a lot of people think of women and their place in society. I chose to have my subject, in this case myself, wearing all black and holding her trench coat open as if she were a flasher from the streets back in the 1960s when older men would go around wearing nothing and flash passersby for a laugh. I chose to adopt this method but instead of showing naked flesh I decided to replace it with words that would stand out a lot more and I positioned each bit of text in a way that seemed as if it were the models body. I really love how this image has turned out as it is different to the rest and it came out just how I had imagined it to be.
For this I have taken some inspiration from the tableau photographer Cindy Sherman. Here I have taken on board the way in which our community views men and women. For this shoot I decided to challenge the way our community thinks and understands certain circumstances. I want to provoke thought, I want our society to open their minds and learn that there is so much more to life than the magazines we read and the ideal of having the ‘perfect life’, watching celebrities and thinking that these people lead the most glorious lives. Nowadays we have shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, award shows, news reports that glamourise celebrities and showing them in the perfect light. We sometimes forget that they too are people and they face the same difficulties that us ‘normal’ people do. There is no such thing as the perfect life, this is what I would like to express through my work. For this shoot I am going to stage everyday life to show how unrealistic this way of life would actually be.
To me community is sharing, whether that be an environment, ways of thinking and experience. As communities grow we are able to learn more and more about one another progressing those relationships. I chose to go with the element of community as this shoot is a message for our first world community to try and enlighten them of how a lot of young people think and the fact that none of it is actually true, it’s all fake. We are constantly bombarded with images of women on the front of magazine covers posing doing everyday things that a lot of young people take literally and think that these models constantly look the way they do in the magazines. This is completely wrong and staged for the cameras. I found my inspiration for this when I came across the 1960’s Estee Lauder Campaigns. I came across these images whilst watching a YouTube video and then decided to explore it further and find out more about these campaigns. This actually inspired me to create my own images.
All of these images have helped to inspire me to create my own photographs. These models were photographed for these photos in the 1960s and to me seem very raw. I think this is because the cameras that were used were more like disposable cameras of today, they had film and that is how they operated. Images were developed in dark rooms rather than being edited and perfected on the computer with editing software. For my shoot I have decided to create all of my images in black and white to stay true to my style models as well as to maintain focus on the subject of the images rather than the colourful surroundings. I think that this shoot will challenge the way we as a community think about things and the way we see the celebrity world. I want people to understand that this idea of having the ‘perfect life’ is completely staged and people are just good at pretending. Celebrities are huge influences on our younger generations that I think we need to focus on and bring to light that this is not a realistic way of thinking. I really like a lot of the images above, most of which are from an Estee Lauder campaign in 1965.
Estee Lauder campaign
Estee Lauder campaign
Estee Lauder campaign 1965
These three images were my main inspirations as they were thought provoking. The two first images of the women looking in the mirror and doing their makeup interested me. I thought ‘why are these women leading over and doing their makeup?!’ that to me just looked ridiculous and kind of glamourised the way that women actually do their makeup, making young girls think that makeup is beautiful and that all women do it. The third image of the woman looking off into the distance all glammed up with a full face of makeup, hair beautifully done and wearing a glamorous gown while seemingly sat at home just makes no sense to me. I understand that these images are for a makeup brand and to advertise their makeup but I don’t like the way the women are glamourised making young girls and women think that this is the way to be and that this is what beauty is. I am excited to recreate some of these images and to try and make the staged aspect of the shoot as exaggerated as possible. I have also decided to do a more realistic everyday life shoot, photographing real people doing through their everyday routines and finding out a bit more about our community and the world that we live in.
A Staged Day in the Life
Lighting experimentation
Lighting experimentation
Here I asked my friend to pose in the position that I would be so I could test out the different angles for my ideas as well as lighting. I found that this shoot was more of a learning experience towards my actual main subject of Film Noir as I managed to work with a load of different lighting exposures with harsh light and soft light by only using natural lighting. I think that this did work out of the bed shots as the sun was setting when I made those images which brought in some good light into my images making them more interesting and mysterious. However, the images at the makeup table aren’t the best as I couldn’t seem to get the aperture completely right on the camera and so those particular ones didn’t come out as well as I had hoped as well as me being unable to actually properly pose for the photos as it was difficult to not get anything else in. If anything I would want to re shoot this in a bare room or something were there is very minimal surroundings with just the vanity dresser, the makeup and the model. I think that this would probably be best done in the studio where I can change the lighting and mess around with a few different things but other than that I think I’ve made a good start and am starting to really get the hang of what light looks good and what pose works well with the position of that lighting.
Here are the images that I have made so far and will be adding to as the course goes on. I experimented with a load of different angles and positions of the subject to see what looked best and which one managed to capture the story the best. This is only the beginning of the characters morning and I will be adding to this to create a more in depth story. I like the lighting in a lot of the bedroom shot images as the sun was actually setting when they were being taken and looked really great with there being more harsh lighting on the subjects face as well as in the background of the image.
This is one of my favourite images as it portrays exactly what I want to get across. This image represents how women are expected to get up and enjoy the morning and simply gazing out of the window but in this image my character looks almost concerned as if she does not know what to do. I like the position of the camera and the composition of my character. Here I set up my camera on a tripod, positioned it and asked my friend to click the button, this worked well. I do find it so much easier just to be behind the camera making the photographs of someone else but I wanted to give a more personal response to the works of Cindy Sherman and Claude Cahun as they are always the main subjects in their photographs. I also like the way my character is looking and that the hand almost covers some of the face giving more of a mysterious way to her as if the spectator cannot completely see who she is but all they know is that she is in deep thought. I do like this image as the strong lighting makes for a more interesting black and white image. I think that this image is most effective in black and white and wouldn’t work in colour as the spectator would get too distracted by the orange coming through the window of the sunset and the contrasting colours of the stripped night gown and the stripped bed sheets. This also makes my character more of an enigma and will make the spectator want to look at the rest of the story to possibly find out a little more about this woman, who she is and what is troubling her. For these images I wanted to create an almost robotic character that is just doing what is expected of her and how society thinks she is really does drain a person and that other people do have problems and do have troubles that they feel that they can only face alone.
I also really like this image as the spectator is unable to see the identity of the subject bringing more of a sense of mystery to her and again making the spectator want to look at more images to find out more about who she and what she is going. I like the way that the camera has captured the sunlight coming through as a lens flare and I also like that is kind of cuts of the subjects hand a little so that the spectator focuses more on the pan with nothing in it. I like this image as it reminds me of one of Cindy Sherman’s images where a young woman [herself] is cooking something and is just passively staring into nothingness which I have taken inspiration from with my own photographs. I do like the composition of this photograph and how the hand on the far left looks a lot bigger than the hand on the right as well as making the body look a lot smaller as if she is possibly wasting away or can’t be bothered to come closer to the pan and actually make a nice breakfast. I also like the light coming off of the subjects shirt as it just gives more layers to the image and makes it stand out a bit more which is really interesting to me. I think that I will stick to having all of my images in black and white as it makes for more interesting images and allows the spectator to focus on what I as the photographer want them to focus on rather than all of the black and red that surrounds my family kitchen. I really like the way the light hits off the counter top as the spectator is able to see the window in it as it shines, it just makes the image that more interesting as well as it giving more shades for the black and white.
I chose this image because I like the angle and position of the camera making it look as though the spectator is looking down on the subject and that she is less powerful than them. I wanted this image to represent how women feel pressured and expected to dress up and always look pretty when in reality not a lot of women want to be constantly made up and when they do it is for themselves and not to impress anyone else. I also like the entire mise-en-scene of this shot as the spectator is able to see the makeup products she has sprawled across the dressing table as well as being able to see her reflection in the mirror. I like the angle that the camera is at and find that it looks really interesting as well as the position of the subject being exactly where I want it. I really like this image as a whole as it is the perfect position of where I want everything to be and how I want the image to be portrayed. I think that the most interesting part of this image is the reflection of my character in the mirror as it is just an interesting angle and everything within that little frame within the photograph looks very staged and put together, this shows how we often only see a part of someones life, the perfect part, and are often taken in by the aesthetics and how everything in that one frame actually fits and looks pretty when in reality the subject isnt so happy when faced with the pressures of having to constantly be ‘perfect’ for the rest of the world.
A Real Day in the Life
Shoot 1:
Here are images from a more realistic day in the life. This isn’t its full potential and I think that I will be redoing this with possibly the same subject or a few different ones to show a more realistic day in the life. This was interesting to shoot but I think just as a starting idea as I know that I can make better images.
Here the subject is working out and getting ready to go to the gym. This was interesting to do but I don’t really like it as a shoot as it is quite boring and doesn’t really have any meaning or anything behind it. As documentary photos they are average and don’t think that they are anything special or interesting. Something about it just makes me not really care too much.
I think that this work is pretty average as a documentary piece and I know that I can make better and more realistic images than this as I felt that this shoot was quite rushed and isn’t really good enough. I will be furthering this idea though and will be making it a lot better visually and a lot more realistic. I will also work on some more shoots with different subjects performing for the camera and I will stage their daily routine too. This will be an interesting way using female stereotypes as well as somewhat documentary by photographing them within their natural environments.
I actually quite like this image as it just shows a teenager doing exactly what you would expect a teen to do, sit with their headphones in listening to music and playing on their phone. I like the position of the subject as the spectator is able to see her reflection in the mirror and can see how dusty it is reflecting on how teenagers are stereo typically seen as lazy and messy. I also like the way my subject is sitting as she doesn’t allow the spectator to see too much of her face as if she is so engrossed in her phone but the spectator is able to see some of her face through the reflection in the mirror.
A few weeks ago I was walking home from a shoot with my sister and her family, I decided to walk home and instead of just going straight home with my camera in my bag I kept my camera out and made photographs as I was walking just as an experimentation of the light and how the camera picks up different light in the evening compared to in the day time. I also made images of the people walking past me to see how it looked and whether or not they were in good lighting for silhouettes. I liked this experimentation as it has helped me come up with some more ideas to add to my Film Noir inspired project. The photos I have made aren’t meant to look great or anything special I was just trying out different lighting at to see whether or not it was dark enough for the light to really stand out when it actually comes to making the Film Noir inspired night images that I want.
I think that these images look a lot better in black and white and the lighting is perfect for the experiment that I want to do. I like the idea of this shooting and making images during the night as it brings a sense of mystery and allure which is the kind of images that I want to create when my Femme Fatales are introduced. I want to experiment further with different locations for this shoot before actually going out and shooting it as I think that this will make it a lot easier when actually shooting as I will know exaclty where, how and what I want to shoot.
This is my favourite image out of all the images that I made that evening as the lighting is great and is very film noir with more of a chiaroscuro lighting feel towards it. I think that when it comes to actually shooting this might be a possible location or more likely I will definitely be using a lamppost to light my images and to make harsh lighting so that the silhouette of the Femme Fatale really stands out in the darkness and looks mysterious. This experimentation worked well for me and has given me a chance to have a look at what kind of images that I am able to create when it actually comes to making the images.
For this I am going to take inspiration from the research that I have carried out from Film Noir, Neo-Noir, Femme Fatale’s as well as take inspiration from various artists works including Claude Cahun, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman. I think that this will interesting to do and I am also doing to incorporate some more documentary style images with real people on the streets of Jersey along with some mini interviews that I will ask them. I have a lot of ideas for this project and think that I will be able to produce a lot of work with this project. I have created some mood boards and brainstormed some new ideas into what I want to specifically focus in on with my individual study.
Film nior is the style/genre of cinematographic film in black and white. The term was originally given by a group of French critics to American thriller or detective films made in from 1944-1954. Film noir’s often have tendencies of pessimism, where they will think of the worst aspect of things with a lack of hope for the future. Another element of this genre of film is fatalism that all events are predetermined and become inevitable, it is passive acceptance. These films will aways include a menace where someone or something is very dangerous or likely to cause harm throughout. Film noir directors include, Billy Wilder [director of Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity] and Fritz Lang [director of The Big Heat, Man Hunt, Secret Beyond The Door]. Film noir uses extremes of shadows and lighting to make for more dramatic black and white scenes. I really like the idea of this as photographers are able to adopt this style and create some great, staged and dramatic photographs.
Most film noir films give men the dominant roles as at the time women were seem as housewives and that they had no real purpose outside of the house. This can also be linked with that filmmakers would make the man desirable as they believed that those watching the films would be male dominant. I think that Film Noir is very outdated in the representation of women as just something for men to look at, for the male gaze [Laura Mulvey theory] and that women will tend to identify with the beautiful woman. I think that this is outdated because nowadays women aren’t passive and are no longer there ‘to be looked at’.
Top 10 Film Noirs video:
Film Noir
Film Noir
Film Noir
Film Noir
Film Noir
Neo-Noir
Neo-Noir is the more modern version of film noir, adopting the same methods of a Noir film with the only real difference being that the films are in colour. It is the ‘New-black’. The term stems from the Greek word of neo meaning New and the French word noir meaning black. These new films use elements of old Noir films but with more updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were not seen in noir films of the 1940s and 1950s.
I find that Neo-Noir is a more up-to-date and interesting way of presenting thriller and detective films. These films include Sin City which is a neo-noir because of the pops of colour used in editing. The film is completely black and white with there only being certain objects, clothing or parts of people being in colour. This is interesting and I think that I might use this when creating my own Noir inspired images.
Top 10 Neo-Noir Films
Neo-Noir
Neo-Noir
Neo-Noir
Neo-Noir
Neo-Noir
Femme Fatale – The Noir Dame
A femme fatale is usually seen in Film Noir’s as an attractive and seductive woman, who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her. I do not like this representation of women in Film Noir as it makes out as if young and attractive women are trouble makers and are only there for the male gaze. I think it is a very old-fashioned style of thinking which is why it lived and died within Film Noir films.
Femme Fatale’s to me are somewhat power yet are still primarily there for the male gaze. Women are used as objects for men to look at and are represented unfairly as if they are evil and there to lure in the men by trying to seduce them as if they are troublemakers. These are really the only women in Film Noir’s and so are portrayed as representing all women as if they are all looking for trouble and trying to get the male lead character off course and to bring disaster to him. I think this is such an out-dated perception of women and I want to make some images reflecting the roles of Femme Fatale’s as well as the lead male characters alongside them.
I don’t like the way women are presented in Film Noir films, being primarily there for the gaze of men and to look pretty for them. We are now at a stage in film where women are getting more active roles that are seen as stronger and more equal to male roles including films like The Hunger Games and Divergent. The reason I like film noir’s is simply because of the way it looks and simplicity of the story line. I like the drastic lighting that is often used to make for a more dramatic scene as well as it all being in black and white. I also like the idea of crime thrillers within this genre as it really does fit with the way the films look. The props that characters wear really interests me and again compliments the visual aspects of these films.
I love Neo-Noir as it reminds me of surrealism in photography which I really enjoy as photographers are able to create an entirely new world that they made up in their heads. I like this style as it does keep many Film Noir aspects to it but uses more up-to-date methods of representation and are able to challenge spectators and audiences. I am excited to respond to the works of Film Noir and Neo-Noir as I feel that there is a lot that I could do and it will make for interesting images of different styles of past thrillers compared to modern thrillers. I want to create new stories and be able to effectively change the way the spectator thinks and the challenge them too. This will be a challenge to be able to do it well but I think that I will be able to do it and will try to do so.
Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer and peace activist also known for her avant-garde art, music and filmmaking. Ono was married to John Lennon until he died in 1980. She was born in 1933 and is now 82 years old. Ono brings feminism into a lot of her work by focusing on the way society perceives them and tends to challenge the way her spectators think and often does performances with audience interaction.
“This society is driven by neurotic speed and force accelerated by greed, and frustration of not being able to live up to the image of men and woman we have created for ourselves; the image has nothing to do with the reality of people.” – Yoko Ono
“We’re here on this earth to unravel the mystery of this planet. The planet is asking for it.” – Yoko Ono
I like the idea of Ono’s film where she asks audience members to one by one join her on stage and cut off a part of her clothing. Eventually she is sitting basically naked. To me this represents the way society picks at women and ends up leaving them with nothing. I find this a really great concept and brings in audience participation as well as bringing to light serious issues such as the way women are treated within our society. I think that this piece is very strong and really does speak volumes. I love that Ono got the audience involved really making it an event to remember. Ono has some really great work which would be interesting to respond to as means of public participation and performance photography. One thing in particular that I enjoy about the film ‘Cut Piece’ is that Ono just has a neutral facial expression, she isn’t sharing her inner emotions with any participants or with the audience. I like that as this allows the audience and spectators to make up their own mind of what is going on and their own personal opinions and views on what is going on. This project shows the vulnerability of women with the audience cutting up her clothing piece by piece. She is motionless throughout possibly showing passiveness and how women are expected to be that way and just allow others to use them and take things away from them, more mentally than physically. This is a really strong body of work and shows true vulnerability in a completely great and artistic way which is something that I really like about Ono.
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream, A dream you dream together is reality.” – Yoko Ono
Recently I have seen quite a few videos of women going into the streets wearing nothing but underwear and a sign, holding a pen in each hand. The signs invite the public to draw a heart anywhere on her body showing that all shapes and sizes of women are beautiful no matter what society tries to imply is right. I think that these videos are very moving and really does show how accepting we can be as a society and that we just need that little push with movements such as feminism and artistic movements in order to gain support and understanding of current social issues of the way men and women are expected to be. This reminds me of Ono’s work as she completely relies on public participation and cooperation within a lot of her work. I really love these kinds of videos as they make me happy and feel less self-conscious of my body knowing that people will accept you no matter what you look like. Through public acts like these we as a society realise that focusing on the way someone looks physically is wrong and can really damage a person mentally. It’s things like these that make me happy to be a part of this generation as we have come so far, with so far to go, and are constantly finding more creative ways to show people that everyone should be accepted and self love is not something to be ashamed of.
More recent work of Yoko Ono. This is mainly to do with music but has a creative meaning and concept behind it which is actually very interesting to watch. Some of the stuff that Ono has created seems very strange and random but then she turns it almost comical and funny, I really like that about her she doesn’t take herself too seriously but does come up with good meanings behind her work with good concepts.
As previously mentioned, I am constantly getting inspiration from the works of Cindy Sherman, specifically her set of Film Stills 1977-1980. Sherman has influenced many tableaux photographers and has become iconic in the movement of feminism. Sherman is an American photographer and film director, known for her conceptual portraits. She was born in 1954 finding her feet in photography in the 70s when she produced her first set of Film Stills. Sherman works in series, usually photographing herself in a wide range of different costumes and makeup changing her identity to create a new persona for each photograph. She will often shoot alone in her studio not knowing exactly what images she wants to produce, she will assume multiple roles and is the author, director, makeup artist, hairstylist, fashion designer and model.
In the past I have gained a lot of inspiration from Sherman’s Film Stills and am still finding inspiration from these images. I like the idea that Sherman looks different in every image and she becomes a new persona each time. I want to use this for my own experimentation and be able to tell a story myself by becoming each character and looking different in each image. I think that her work is very strong and there is always something going on. Sherman tends to find humour in types of people and she will mimic them within her work and exaggerate certain traits that they have. I find this very interesting as Sherman does not care if she offends people and will just do to make for some good images. A theme that I’ve noticed with Sherman’s work is that she uses a lot of makeup and props to change the shape of her body as well as many wigs. I really like this as she is able to tell so many different stories within her work as a tableau photographer.
“Cindy Sherman represents everything that is wrong with the contemporary art world.” – Bloomberg Business review
I think that Sherman really stands out in the photography world and has really furthered public knowledge of the unfair advantages and disadvantages faced with men and women. Sherman tends to focus in on the stereotypes of women and she likes to recreate a persona of a person she has possibly seen and exaggerates them to make for more impact and to stand out against other photographs. I really like this concept as she is showing spectators the problems within our own society of how we treat women and how we expect them to be. I think that it is so wrong that women have one set of rules while men have another, it is unfair for both parties as we are all human we all share the same kind of emotions and yet our gender seems to have an effect on the way we show those emotions and the way we treat others. Sherman’s work is very strong and bold, she doesn’t tend to hold back at all and has many over the top nude photographs where she creates a new persona and she makes her own props of different parts of the female anatomy to make for a more interesting photograph. I believe Sherman uses nudes within her work as a way of showing what society expects of women and I can also link this to many painting where women are used as objects to be seen and painted as sexual figures.
This image really shows the cliches faced with women perfectly. The subject is looking glamorous wearing a pretty skirt and makeup while picking up the grocery shopping showing how women are, within society, expected to do all of the cooking, cleaning and household chores while still looking good. I think that this is a strong images as Sherman’s facial expression doesn’t look pleased at all, she looks very miserable as if she doesn’t want to be doing all of the household work. This image shows how society has treated women in the past and how it still treats them to this day. Spectators are able to see how women are represented unfairly and what are expected of women yet not expected of men. I really like this image as it is very strong and shows the strain put on women within our society. I just really like this image and the way it looks with all of the props and the position of the subject is really interesting to me. I love Sherman’s work showing the cliches women faced in the 70s and it shows just how many of those that women still face today. It is interesting to see how little has changed since the 70s and how women are still perceived in the same way and still face the same unfair expectations.
Another image that I find very interesting is the one above. I really like this image as Sherman is posing almost like a Femme Fatale from film Noir films. She looks like a damsel in distress and needs a man to come and save her. Sherman shows the spectator the expectation of women having to look glamorous all of the time and ready to do anything that her man wants her to. This image is very interesting as it shows the cliches faced by women, like all of Sherman’s photographs. I really like this image because it is obviously staged and something that you would expect to see when someone is mocking another person as a damsel in distress. This photograph interests me as the subject is wearing somewhat provocative clothing and posing in such a way that the spectator would think that she ‘was asking for it’ even though no matter what the woman looks like or is wearing she is never asking for it. I think that this is a strong image and interesting to look at.
I love this image. There is something about this photograph that really draws me in and makes me want to analyse it further to learn more about it. The lights in the background of this image draw me in as you would usually expect those kind of lights to be behind the camera not in front of it. I like that the subject is looking directly into the camera with only her head as the rest of her body is facing away from it, this seems as if she was possibly sitting on the floor with those big lights doing her makeup and then turned around to look because she was being disturbed. I know that Sherman makes all of her photographs without a clear plan as to what she wants but only a clear plan on who she wants to be. Sherman makes her images alone in her studio yet it doesn’t look that way and every photo is different and unique in itself. I like the subjects outfit, it looks as though she is getting ready for a night out or possibly to do a performance. One of my favourite photos from Sherman’s film stills, there is nothing specific about it I just really find it interesting to look at and I enjoy looking at it. Something that I also noticed about Sherman’s Film Stills is that they are all in black and white, much to do with the time she had a film camera in the 70s where colour hadn’t been introduced yet but they look really awesome and it just adds more atmosphere and effect to the image. The spectator is able to focus in on the subject and what she is doing rather than getting distracted by all of the lights and colours surrounding her.
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist born in 1945. Much of her work is done in black and white overlaid with declarative captions. These captions are written in white on red backgrounds with phrases in her works often including pronouns such as ‘you’, ‘your’, ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘they’ really personalising her messages towards the spectators. Her messages address cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality. I like the concept of Kruger’s work as she brings clear messages to the spectator and tells them what they should see in the image. Kruger is a conceptual and feminist artist.
I think that I will take inspiration from Kruger in my own work and add this kind of Dada style written text and imagery in my own photographs. This style also reminds me of propaganda and really sends out clear messages. It mainly reminds me of the Second World War when they would try to get women into the factories to help in the war effort and how they would influence people to become soldiers. I find this a very interesting concept and can be highly influential and effective if it is actually done well.
“one of the best artists of the 1980’s without actually doing much that is new.” – Roberta Smith review
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is an influential movement that first emerged in the mid 1960s. It brought up ideas over the formal or visual components of traditional works of art. Conceptual artists will often challenge old concepts of things such as beauty, they question the conventional means by which the public consume art. Artists will often reject the conventional arts and use ranges of medias including maps, diagrams, texts and videos. Kruger is constantly making new images, she will find old archive images of something and stick a text in front of it with a clear meaning.
Feminist art
Feminist art emerged around the same time as conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s. This came about so artists could explore questions of sex, power, the body and how gender categories seem to structure the way we see and understand the world. This art also frequently involves text and performance elements. Kruger will often use staged photographs as backgrounds for her text and manages to find great photographs to make her images stand out even more.
Whose Values? project by Kruger and 400 students:
I do enjoy looking at Kruger’s work as a lot of it holds strong social messages. She tends to make her messages very clear and easy for anyone to understand as she has blatantly written them in found photographs. I think that I will use the idea of this within my work and incorporate it into my own work as well as experimenting with other works too. I want to be able to broaden my skills within photography and be able to make more artistic links within different forms of art and not just in the photographic sense. I think that I will be able to make quite a few different responses to Kruger’s work as I find this very interesting and unique in the photography world yet it seems so simple. Kruger took inspiration from magazines and made it her own, she believed that if they could do it and hold so much influence then she could do exactly the same thing. I am excited to respond to this body of work.
This image particularly interests me as the background image is a woman looking through a magnifying glass. The text fits with the photograph as it states that the world isn’t small if ‘you have to clean it’. I think that this is really effective as the woman seems as if she is looking for dirt to clean and that she has to look closely to actually clean up and that there is so much to clean in this massive world. I like the bold font with ‘It’s a small world’ and the rest of the text much smaller ‘but not if you have to clean it’. For some reason this stands out to me and kind of seems like Kruger was saying ‘It’s a small world’ quite loudly and proudly while saying the part in the smaller text under her breath as if making a sly comment. I think that this is a strong image and shows how women are expected to do the cleaning and look after the house etc. There isn’t much to this image as the text is very plain and simple. It is obvious and to the point, it doesn’t just suggest things allowing the spectator to make their own perception it literally tells them exactly what she was thinking and what she wanted the spectator to get from the image. These images aren’t her own but she uses old images to make new ones with her own original text in front of them.
Another image that stood out for me was this one above. I think that this is the perfect image to go with Kruger’s text as it is very bold in itself and stands out to me. I like that one half of the image is in black and white with the other half in negative. This shows two sides to the subject, one pretty and good while the other looks more scary and a little bit sinister. The message that Kruger brought across was ‘Your body is a battleground’, this really interests me as it is in front of a woman’s face and how possibly the struggles that women face every month with having periods and going through cramps and constant bleeding. This could be what Kruger means by ‘battleground’. It could also be through pregnancy and how women often go through the struggle of being pregnant and then having children and being expected to carry on with everyday life almost straight away. I like this image as it is bold and is open for spectators interpretation.
One other image that I like is this one above because it seems as if a little boy is being told that he doesn’t need to grow muscle as his mother pushes him down. The text really works with this image and is effective as it says ‘We don’t need another hero’. This could possibly be a message to young boys that they don’t need to feel that they have to fight in wars to be seen as masculine and they don’t need to conform to societies expectations of having big muscles and being strong and independent. It is almost as if his mother doesn’t want him to be another ‘hero’ because she loves him and doesn’t want to lose him like many other mother’s did during World War II. I think this is one of my favourite images as it is quite powerful and stands out to me. I think that the image and the text blend well together and almost look as though the image was made for the text and that is the way it was broadcast.
Claude Cahun was a French artist/photographer who moved in 1937 to Jersey Channel Islands during World War II. Cahun was a surrealist and had many political and personal movements behind her work. I really love the idea of having a strong political message behind my work as through photography were are able to visually represent what a lot of people wouldn’t dare to say. We are able to send out strong messages that makes the world stand still. This only happened to Cahun after her death. She was a lesbian together with her half sister. During Nazi occupation in Jersey Cahun gave out anti-Nazi leaflets in attempts to demoralise the troops trying to get them to leave the island. The pair also created notes on a bit of tissue with a drawn picture and always written in German to insinuated that it was a German officer writing them. Cahun was arrested along with her partner and were sentenced the death penalty. Although, the pair escaped with their lives as the island was liberated before the sentence could be carried out. This was unfortunate for Cahun as she actually wanted to be a martyr.
Claude Cahun self-portraitClaude Cahun’s father
The image above shows Cahun looking very masculine and a lot like an image of her father. i find this image very interesting as she does look like a man as she has no hair and more masculine features. Cahun had a good relationship with her father and, in some ways, idolized him. She shares the same beak shaped nose as her father and seems to identify with him through this image. It is very simple but is a bit of an enigma. I think that if a spectator was to look at this image they would not be able to tell that the subject is a woman and just think nothing much of it. I find this image strange and I want to find out more as to why Cahun saw herself this way and felt that her way of identifying herself was through her male role models. I can see that possibly this images represents standards, how men are typically seen as having short to no hair and wear quite baggy clothing and suits whereas the norm for a woman would be to have long hair that is always made presentable and pretty long dresses to go as well as makeup. I can see that Cahun doesn’t identify with the stereotypes put on females and wants to break that stereotype by being radical and different to everyone else. She seems to go against the expectations of women and how they are supposed to be.
“There are very few Jews in the islands. The two Jewish women who have just been arrested belong to an unpleasant category. These women had long been circulating leaflets urging German soldiers to shoot their officers. At last they were tracked down. A search of the house, full of ugly cubist paintings, brought to light a quantity of pornographic materials of an especially revolting nature. One woman had her head shaved and been thus photographed in the nude from every angle. Thereafter she had worn men’s clothes. Further nude photographs showed both women practicing sexual perversion, exhibitionism, and flagellation.” – German Soldier’s report on finding Cahun and Moore, 1944 (The Guerilla Girls 63)
For a female to be a photographer back in the 1930 Britain and Jersey was something very strange as women had only received the right to vote in 1928 [above the age of 21]. A lot of people were sceptical of this kind of job especially for a woman as they were still seen as child-baring, stay-at-home-mums. For Cahun to be a lesbian would have been a very radical thought. From the years of 1558 Queen Elizabeth I introduced laws against gay men, she did not include women in this law because she did not think that they would do such a thing so being a lesbian wasn’t actually illegal or seen as a crime because it was so rare and unexpected. Cahun would have had a hard time being accepted within society because she was an open homosexual. Her photography work has only really been noticed more recently after she died in 1954.
At first looking through Cahun’s work I couldn’t really understand why she is seen as a feminist as well as from her history she didn’t have a good relationship with her mother but tended to identify more with her father and male role models. I had a think about her work and came to realise that Cahun is challenging the social norms that men and women face. She wanted to challenge the way women are seen, the way women are supposed to present themselves. I really like this idea as I believe that we should not be defined by gender but we should be able to mould ourselves in any way we deem fit instead of trying to conform to social stereotypes. For example, my little niece is expected to wear pink clothing because she is a girl which to me is so stupid because a colour shouldn’t define a gender nor should we shun people for wearing that certain colour. I like Cahun’s work as she wants to challenge the way society thinks. In many of her images she wears male clothing and picks up male norms, she tended to pick up more of an eccentric lifestyle compared to others during that time.
“She rejected all conventions of her culture and time, especially those regarding sexuality and the performance of it.” – Feminist Art Archive review
Andre Breton link to Cahun
Andre Breton
Breton was the founder of the surrealist movement back in Paris along with a few other artists and writers which was influenced by Karl Marx. Breton defined surrealism as “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner – the actual functioning of thought.” Breton proposed that artists will often bypass rationality and reason by expressing and accessing the unconscious mind. This allowed artists to think outside the norm and to create new realities within their own work. Andre Breton took interest in Cahun and her work although she would never actually directly associate herself with his movement and actually became wary of any direct association with any label or group. Cahun was an individual who wanted to remain unique and stick to her own ideas of creativity rather than belonging to any group or movement. Cahun refused to be limited by certain labels of females, lesbians, writers, a photographer, a Jew or even an artist. Cahun rejected all familiar and generically given conventions of life and adapted her own unique way of living, the way she wanted to live.
“Individualism? Narcissism? Of course. It is my strongest tendency, the only intentional constancy I am capable of.” – Claude Cahun
Cahun’s work is very unique and stands out from the norm of what spectators would expect from a photograph. I think that a lot of her images are made with the intent to show that women can look like men and that it isn’t a negative thing because in reality we as humans are all very similar. Cahun has many works with a shaved head, making her look a lot more like her father who she really looked up to. I find this interesting as this at the time would have been so unusual and masculine looking whereas now so many young women are shaving their heads and look very beautiful. I think that Cahun has helped this to become more of a norm by challenging the way spectators think and making them see certain aspects of gender stereotypes in a different light. Much like other feminist/tableaux photographers, like Cindy Sherman, Cahun tends to look different in each set of images. I think that photographers use this as a way to allow more spectators to identify with them and to show characters instead of just repeatedly seeing images of the same person. I like the idea of creating a character within each photograph and dressing up as someone else to portray a new and unique story for each set of images.
The image above really interests me because at first glance it is actually quite scary looking. The way Cahun has positioned herself isn’t at a flattering angle and the black eyeliner around her eyes makes her look like more of an enigma and interesting character. I like that this image is very simple and only has a medium close up of Cahun herself looking masculine and a lot like her father. I like that this image is in black and white as it becomes more effective as well as there only being black and white film cameras around when Cahun was a photographer. This allows the spectator to focus in on the subjects face and really try hard to see what is going on in the photograph and it also makes the dark makeup on her face stand out more. This particular image is like a standard portrait image but Cahun has changed it by facing her body away from the camera and only turning her head round as if glancing behind her to see what is happening. I like this image because it is strange to look at, I’m really interested as to why Cahun chose to make this image. It shows the masculinity in her facial features while hiding her more feminine side of her chest area. I would like to respond to Cahun’s work with some unique surrealist photographs, responding the social norms faced with modern women and challenging them in a new and unique way much like Cahun has done.
Another image that I find very interesting is this one above. To me the subject is showing her true self and how it different she is to the norm while holding a mask that she possibly feels that she has to wear. The subject doesn’t look happy at all, as if she’s been covering up for so long and has always felt that she needs to conform to the ways that society has taught her and pushed her to be. The mask seems to be a physical representation of this pressure from society. The subject looks quite strange to me, she has hearts drawn onto her cheekbones and her hair is weirdly curved, however I actually really like it and find it unique. This image challenges the ideals of beauty, which seems to be shown on the mask. I really want to respond to Cahun’s work with more up-to-date versions of her images, even though a lot of pressures and socially accepted norms from back in the 1920s and 1930s still remains today with ideals of beauty actually being remoulded and shaped differently. I have gained a lot of inspiration from Cahun’s work and think that I can reflect this in new ideas that I have come up with and will begin working on.
I find this image extremely interesting. Cahun looks like a man, she looks nothing like what society expects a woman to look like and I find this very interesting. Cahun wanted to challenge the way people saw men and women and I think she would have seen our current world as a newly successful step. At the time these images would have been so radical and outrageous as women weren’t often seen as being able to creatively express themselves, unlike nowadays where men and women go against societal norms and do whatever they please. I think the reasoning behind each of Cahun’s images is very powerful and does really reflect the pressures that men and women both have to suffer through within our society. Although her work was made almost 90 years ago, it is still very current and still manages to fit in with our modern society. That is why I like this work so much because it is still relatable and still makes sense to this day. Cahun didn’t know that her work would one day be widely known but I think that she would have been extremely happy, especially with the way society has remoulded and is now a lot more accepting of people that don’t quite fit in any category, the misfits.
Feminism in photography really stems from tableaux photographers including Cindy Sherman as a movement to further progress understanding of unfair societal, economic and political differences with the way men and women are treated. I really like tableaux photography as the photographer is able to tell a story that is completely staged and they have complete control, it is almost like making a film but in stills and each image tells a strong story on its own or even within a series of images.
Suffragettes movement
The Suffragettes movement in Britain came around in 1872. Suffragette is simply a woman seeking the right to vote through organised protest. Women were actually banned from voting in Britain from the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act. The suffragette movement was a political one creating organisations including the National Society for Women’s Suffrage. Suffragettes used peaceful protest in speech, they were expected to stay at home look after the children and cook and clean. During the First World War 1914 suffragettes put their movements on hold to help out and work in defence manufacturers and made a large contribution to the efficiency of defences and other supplies made during the war. After the war women began to fight more violently for the right to vote and would smash windows and blow up post boxes. The most famous suffragette act was by a woman called Emily Davidson who stood out on a national horse racing day to raise the flag of ‘Votes for Women’ in front of TV cameras that were to be broadcast all over Britain. She was hit by a horse and died due to fatal skull and internal injuries. She became a martyr to the suffragette movement. This made headlines unlike other protests where the government and police had silenced the press. Thousands at tented Davidson’s funeral and the suffragettes movement was now being recognised. In 1918 the coalition government passed the Representation of the People Act giving women certain women over the age of 30 the right to vote who met minimum property qualifications. Finally, 10 years later, 1928, the Conservative government passed a new act giving the vote to all women over the age of 21. The movement of the suffragettes gave women the power to know that they were worth more than just living at home and they were worthy of an education. Without these women in Britain women wouldn’t have the positions within work places that they are able to have today. This movement saw a more equal Britain and women were now treated less as housemaids and more like they should be treated, as equals. I really do think that not many people know about what suffragette women went through and the brutality and force that men had over women. The story of the Suffragettes, to me, is the almost untold story of British history. However, a film titled ‘Suffragette’ has been released that explains what one group of women did to further the movement in the early 1900’s.
British Suffragettes
British Suffragettes
British Suffragettes
What is feminism?
Feminism could only come about after the Suffragette movement as women were only then starting to get a voice and being seen more equally. Here feminism came about because men and women are faced with unfair standards and stereotypes. Feminism is the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. This movement does not see women as more important than men but it sees them as equals. In recent years it has become a very controversial topic of which some people are saying it to be a ‘man hating’ movement claiming that women ‘are more important and that men don’t face problems’. This is the wrong perception of the movement as there are male feminists. People tend to get it confused because of the name of the movement suggests feminine which is obviously associated with women. Feminism urges to change stereotype, objectification and derogatory lexis that mainly women face day to day. For example, if a woman were to sleep around she would be labelled as a ‘slag’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’ etc unlike a man who would not even be labelled or even be called a ‘lad’ by friends. This is an hypocritical and unfair label that women are constantly faced with. However, there are many other aspects to feminism that seek the equality of life for both men and women. Another example would be that if a male is seen to be sad or to show emotion he is ‘probably gay’ which is completely wrong as women are allowed to be emotional. There are so many unfair and unrealistic stereotypes faced with men and women which feminists are trying to change. Many photographers use this within their work to further the movement of feminism.
Celebrity feminists
Tinie Tempah
Benedict Cumberbatch
Emma Watson
Tom Hiddleston
Douglas Booth
Eddie Redmayne
Ed Miliband
Simon Pegg
Joseph Gordan-Levitt
Feminist photographers include Cindy Sherman, Claude Cahun and Barbara Kruger. Feminism is becoming more and more widely known as more people are beginning to see the unequal stereotypes and labels put on men and women. I love that through photography artists are able to express themselves freely and show spectators physical representations of what women actually have to deal with day in and day out as well as men. I believe that women are still somewhat underrepresented and a lot of people see feminism as a negative thing and shameful. This is what Suffragette women also went through because they were at a different mindset from the rest of society. It takes time and I believe that through generations we become more understanding and openminded about societal issues such as feminism.
I am excited to explore this topic further to gain a broader understanding of feminism and the way men and women are treated differently within our society. I will be responding to various photographers work as well as making my own work. I feel that there is still so much to learn and so many aspects of feminism that are untold in photography.
The video created by Amber Rose is obviously an over exaggerated way of expressing her views on what is commonly known as the ‘walk of shame’. This label is only given to women who have one-night stand yet men are not faced with this same label. This just shows the double standard that our society has for men and women. I like this video because it juxtaposes the way people actually think when they see a woman walking down the street in the same clothing that she wore the night before. People will automatically label women that do this and give them derogatory labels like ‘slut’, ‘slag’ etc. Some people see it as wrong and disgusting for a woman to do this yet if a man were to do it it would be seen as fine as it is his body and he should be able to do as he pleases with it. I think this video is really effective and Rose has made the seriousness of this issue more comical and blatantly easy to follow and to show how ridiculous slut shaming and labelling women is.
Feminist protestors at the Suffragette London movie Premiere
This past week the film ‘Suffragette’ came out and premiered in London. Here feminists from the activist group Sisters Uncut lay on the red carpet where the stars of the film were and held signs that said ‘We are suffragettes’ and ‘dead women can’t vote’. Their movement puts emphasis on domestic violence and the protest was organised because cuts had been made to domestic violence services. This movement focuses on how women are abused as well as men. It is good to see that the there are still activist groups fighting for equality in political, social and economic aspects of modern life.
Sisters Uncut protest at Suffragette London premiere
Sisters Uncut protest at Suffragette London premiere
Feminism in photography can be hugely influential as many people identify with more visual aspects of it and find it easier to relate and get their head around. There is so much to feminism and a lot of photographers will tend to focus on social aspects of this because it is what becomes more effective and is the one aspect of modern life that really is backward and unjust.
