Over the weekend, I visited my neighbour who is the owner of Claude Cahun’s old property In the parish of Saint Brelade. Diane Martland is a lady in her seventies who has lived in the property since 1965; eleven years after Claude Cahun died. Her father purchased the house addressed “Bedford House” for £15,000 and I couldn’t hazard a guess to as how much the property is worth now considering the location, condition of the house/ land and due to the discovery of Claude Cahun’s work and how this coincides with the property. Of paramount importance, Jersey Heritage recently ‘listed’ the building meaning it cannot be knocked down and it will be forever protected.

I questioned Lady Di to what her favourite image(s) were of Claude Cahun’s collection to which she picked the following:

Diane picked these two images as she felt a connection on a personal level as the pictures were taken in the garden she owns. She commented on how she enjoyed the absurdity of the images, especially the photograph of the cat on a leash on the beach/garden wall. Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s photographic montage is another Diane enjoys as its quirky nature combined with the breathtaking scenery of the South-West coast creates a sublime image.

Following this discussion, I asked Diane whether she’d be comfortable posing to replicate some similar images to that which Cahun took and she jumped at the opportunity… she was doing costume changes as she’d arranged different sets of clothing which she felt were similar to that of the image and also asked me to fetch my dog because we didn’t quite have a cat.