Context

Claude Cahun (born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob) was an androgynous, surrealist and activist photographer, widely known for her enigmatic self-portraits, in which Cahun presented herself as many different personas. As a teenage Lucy Schwob, she rebelled against conventional ideas of beauty by shaving her head and wearing masculine clothing. She changed her name to the infamous and gender-neutral tag ‘Claude Cahun’ in 1917. Later on in her life, she displayed resistance to the German forces during the WWII occupation of Jersey.

Her resistance against these forces was admirable and still is today, especially as she came from a Jewish family. Alongside her partner, Cahun resisted against these troops and created a persona referred to as ‘Der Soldat Ohne Namen’ (‘The Soldier Without a Name’) in which she presented this persona as an unknown German soldier whose sole intent was to inspire rebellion within the army. She wrote leaflets pointing out the idiocy of war and ridiculing the actions of the German officers. These were either posted through the windows of German cars or left in cigarette packets, hoping that someone would pick them up.

However, after four years, Cahun and Moore were caught and arrested. They were then both sentenced to 6 years imprisonment and later death for inciting rebellion.

Cahun’s work

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Cahun’s work mainly explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. During the 1920s Cahun produced an astonishing number of self-portraits in various acts such as a pilot, doll, bodybuilder, vampire, angel, and Japanese puppet. A large number of her portraits, feature Cahun making direct eye contact with the camera, with her shaven head and often revealing only head and shoulders. This resulted in photos where the viewer could not clearly identify and define Cahun’s gender by the distinguishing features that would have otherwise been visible to the audience.

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For full-body portraits, Cahun often posed herself with purpose. Theatre became an important feature of Cahun’s work, as she aimed to avoid displaying any behaviour that could be associated with a gender and attempted to create images that blurred any possible gender indicators from the viewer.

Photo Analysis

Taken during the Jersey occupation, this portrait depicts Chaun dressed as an old woman. This guise is significant due to her rebellious role in the occupation. Cahun and her partner Moore disguised themselves as old women and often travelled to the town of St Helier, where they attempted to humiliate the German occupying forces through the use of notes and letters written by what they referred to themselves as ‘der Soldat ohne Namen’. The portrait shows Cahun holding a nazi cross between her teeth.

The treatment of this cross is significant to the portrait. The act of gripping this nazi symbol between her teeth acts as an act of defiance against the German officers, in turn stripping the cross of any symbolic power it holds as well as rendering it insignificant, as Cahun believed the acts of war were completely nonsensical and unjust. Her slight smirk and bold gaze past the camera implies the presence of a person or thing that has captured Cahun’s attention. This creates ambiguity. The viewer may question who she is glancing at. Perhaps it is one of the German officers themselves, this potentiality gives the viewer the idea that Cahun is fearless in her resistance. Additionally, her pose is confident. The positioning of her hands in her pocket also acts as a rebellion against the societal ideals of women during that era. The pose is relaxed and comfortable, lacking the elegance and grace expected by women at the time.

The lighting within the image is also significant. Taken in bright daylight, it amplifies the impression that Cahun is unafraid of displaying her rebellion. She would have been in public view, given the background and shadow of foliage suggests she is outside. This unrestricted display of discontent toward the German forces is commendable and extremely brave for someone of that time, especially considering her Jewish background and social position as a woman at the time.

Identity politics is a currently controversial political outlook. Oppose to the philosophy of individualism and the approach of implementing broad changes across the board, identity politics takes the view of grouping certain demographics together. These groups will be exclusively part of socio-political legislation, schemes and laws as well as cultural changes accepted by the majority of the public. Identity politics is a big talking point in the U.S.A. A huge element of this is based on race. There is a culture in America that normalizes the frequent use of labels (e.g. African American). Contextually, it was only in the 1960’s/1970 the black population became equal in the eyes of the law and government. This is a recent date relative to the time scale of politics and culture. This means that after the law is finally ‘fixed’ the next step is for society and culture to catch up. Most people would argue this is still taking place today in America. For example, there is still deep rooted racism in the police force, so deep that most of the police officers are unaware of their wrong doings. The geology of inner city suburbs also show such a divide of who is in poverty and who is not. These factors are derived from the more serious problems from the past (e.g. slavery) that have trickled down into these problems that are still prevalent. This is where identity politics comes in. People believe that there should be more implementation of support to certain social groups that have been oppressed or still to this day are being oppressed. On the surface this ideology seems to be an obvious morally correct stance. However there are other arguments that are made regarding this, one of them being that it may exclude the idea of the individual , thus forming unnecessary stereotypes and intensified political divide.

With the world becoming increasingly globalized, there has been an increase in migration and movement in labor forces. This has resulted in the already diverse world becoming even more diversified in different cultures. Not only immigration but already existing cultures that originated up to a century ago and cultures that have always existed to a certain extent like the LGBT community are also involved in the diversification of culture. These sections of the the population have spoken up during recent decades, especially, as well as there opposing sides. This creates culture war. Even though there may be a lack of tanks and artillery on the battlefield, the issues are just as serious and there is still a presence of violence. The culture wars are closely intertwined with identity politics. Culture wars is what sparks the flame for protests and rebellion on the platform of identity politics. It can be a dangerous game to play when groups of the population become tribal and aggressive to other ‘tribes’ even though it is not themselves that gave them or the opposing ‘their’ labels. This problematic factor provokes the question whether identity politics is the right way forward or at least where the line should be drawn in the sand.

Cahun

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O’Donnell

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Claude Cahun (real name is Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob) was a writer, sculptor and photographer born in 1894. Her self portrait work was very influential, empowering women and contradicting very unfair female gender roles in late 1910’s until her death in 1954. Cahun presented herself in men’s clothing, and with short hair. This work was courageous as it was difficult for women to freely express themselves during the times her portraits were taken. For her time, Cahun’s work was considered ‘different’ and ‘odd’ leading to people categorizing her in the Surrealistic artist group. Cahun lived in Jersey during World War II as a Jewish gender neutral person.

Technical

• Close up shot which are often linked with emotion and encourage the viewer to try and understand how the subject feels.
• Soft Black & White to create a neutral image with emotion.

Visual

• The item over O’Donnell’s head removes all sense of identity from her and creates a sort of ‘blank’ human.
• The bland suit and shirt compliment the item over her head and further emphasizes the loss of identity.
• The male clothing contradicts gender stereotypes.
• The background of the image and the item are very similar in their colour causing them to appear as if they are merging with one another. I feel as if this is a statement towards gender stereotypes and performativity making everyone the same.

Conceptual

• This image is taken from O’Donnell’s short film ‘That’s Not The Way The River Flows’ which highlights the issues surrounding gender and it’s affects on individual identity.
• O’Donnell says ‘ As we unpick the complicated narrative of gender and the generalisations that it encapsulates, we are forced to re-imagine what it is that makes us who we are and what we want or can identify as.’ I believe this image represents her idea of re imagining who we are by creating a ‘blank’ human with space for a new identity.
• Her use of male clothing also contrasts the ‘generalisations of gender’ which she comments on / brings attention to throughout her film.

Technical

• Close up shot which are often linked with emotion and encourage the viewer to try and understand how the subject feels.
• Soft Black & White to create a neutral image with emotion could be a link to Cahun’s neautral gender.

Visual

• We can see a mirror in this photo which shows a different view of Cahun through the reflection. This can be seen as a link to her duplicitous identity (her true self and the identity she hides behind). Cahun said ‘Under this mask, another mask. I will never be finished removing all these faces.’ this links well with this image as we see a portrayal of two masks through the use of the mirror.
• The male clothing contradicts gender stereotypes and the very short hair adds to this making it difficult to assume a gender with no knowledge of Cahun.

Conceptual

• Her use of male clothing also contrasts the ‘generalisations of gender’ which were very prevalent in the late 1910’s.

Suffragette Movement

Suffragettes: an activist women’s organisations in the early 20th century who, under the banner “Votes for Women”, fought for the right to vote in public elections, known as women’s suffrage. Debated over several days, it was passed on 22nd May 1919 and entered into force on 12th July 1919. Although the movement started out peaceful they weren’t being listened to so they resorted to violent tactics, from smashing windows and arson attacks to setting off bombs and even attacking works of art – in attempt to highlight that there was more care over property than over woman’s rights. Which, was what helped them gain attention, but also brought up issues over police brutality, as seen again repeated recently.

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Emmeline Pankhurst: The leader of the suffragettes in Britain, Pankhurst is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in modern British history. She founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, a group known for employing militant tactics in their struggle for equality.

Emily Wilding Davison: Died at a horse race as she ran infront of the kings horse in protest for women’s suffrage. Although she gave no explanation of her plan on what she was trying to do at the race, many believe she was trying to hang a women’s rights banner onto the horse but other people think it could’ve been an accident, suicide attempt. Either way it resulted in a very historic mention for the suffragette movement.

Another example of a woman who risked her life for the suffragette movement was Mary Richardson. She was imprisoned for her protesting activities, so she continued her protest in prison by engaging in a hunger strike. She was forcibly fed in 1914.

“They fed me five weeks by the nose and at the end of that time my nose what they called ‘bit’ the tube, and it would not pass into the throat even though they bent it and twisted it into all kinds of shapes. Instead, it went up to the top of my nose and seemed to pierce my eyes… Then they forced my mouth open by inserting their fingers and cutting my gums… and the lining of my cheeks… when I was blind and mad with pain they drove in two large gags. Then the tubes followed and they pressed my tongue down with their fingers and pinched my nose to weaken the natural, and also the purposeful, resistance of my throat.” – Emily Richardson.

what is a photo-zine?

dictionary definition : “self-published, often handmade collection of photographs laid out in a magazine style.”

I want my photo-zine to have warm mood, so I am going to edit my images to have a high temperature. I want to do this because this type of love story I am narrating is warm and familiar.

in my photo-zine I am going tell a narrative of a love story, however this story doesn’t contain 2 people loving each romantically, but a dad, a daughter and a horse sharing the love of living a life in nature and the peace it holds.

I want the layouts to flow with the narrative and be easy on the eye. For some of the layouts I want to have grid effect, to display many images that relate to each other. On other pages I want full bleed images, this layout will be used for photographs that have a lot of importance relating to the narrative.

On certain pages, when a piece of text is necessary I will add one, it will mostly be found quotes or short pieces of text needed to elaborate on my narrative.

Suffragette Movement

A suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organisations in the early 20th century who, under the banner “Votes for Women”, fought for the right to vote in public elections.

Emmeline Pankhurst became involved in women’s suffrage in 1880. She was a founding member of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) in 1903 and led it until it disbanded in 1918. Under her leadership the WSPU was a highly organised group and like other members she was imprisoned and went on hunger strike protests.

In 1908 the co-editor of the WSPU’s newspaper, Votes for Women, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, designed the suffragettes’ colour scheme of purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope.

Emily Wilding Davison (suffragette) who died at the Epsom racecourse during the Derby 100 years ago under the hooves of the king’s horse has been saluted by some as a brave martyr and attacked by others as an irresponsible anarchist.

The movement has influence many other feminist protests in more modern times eg. Me Too movement, FEMEN movement

The suffragettes main challenge was to gain the right for women to vote. Photography played a role in their eventual success by spreading awareness of the movement to larger numbers of people.

Dadaism

Dadaism was a movement with explicitly political overtones – a reaction to the senseless slaughter of the trenches of WWI. It essentially declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment’s descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense.

Abstraction and Expressionism were the main influences on Dada, followed by Cubism and, to a lesser extent, Futurism.

At the first public Dada soiree on July 14, 1916, Dada founder Hugo Ball read from the Dada Manifesto: “How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying dada.”

Photography allowed for people to take absurd photos to join the movement but also allowed for sculptors and other physical art to be recorded and spread to a wider audience. raising awareness for the artistic movement.