shannon o’donnel
shannon o’donnell is a young and contemporary artist whose work mainly centers around gender, sexuality, feminism and understanding certain topics such as, abortion. o’donnell makes short films, which are mixed with ambient sounds. some of their work is photographs, medium form, and stills from their films. o’donnell has also used archive photographs to elaborate their projects. shannon o’donnells’ way of working is very thorough, they spend lots of time researching, and mainly reads theorists books, watches films and looks at other photographer to find inspiration. some theorists that inspired o’donnell are judith singer, who looked at androgyny. a quote from shannon o’donnell describing the work of singer, “not being gendered, but yourself”. some photographic inspirations for o’donnell are claude cahun, duane michals, casa susan, walter pfieffer and adi nes. all these inspirations themes relate to sexuality and gender construct, which shannon o’donnell also looks at to base their work on. shannon o’donnel was born in jersey channel islands.
analysis
The lighting in this photograph is natural/daylight. It is very bright and allows all of the aspects of the photograph to be seen clearly and with clarity. The white balance is natural, and there is no weird tinges of unnatural colours. The colours within this image are very basic and plain, which relates to the nature of the picture from SHANNON O’DONNELL from her series of photos from a period of time when her mum was in hospital. There is a lack of tonal range in this image, as there are mainly just white and light tones. This lightness relates to the clinical feeling within the hospital. The lack of dark tones may also connotate to how O’DONNELL felt during the time her mum was in hospital, positive and hopeful. Overall the image is full, the layout however is simple and looks very aesthetically pleasing. All the objects are mainly centered around the middle of the image, which leads the eye towards the center of the image. The shadow of light on the fall contrasts heavily with the solid bed photographed adjacent to it.
claude cahun
claude cahun was a french photographer, writer, and sculpture. cahun was born into a jewish family in 1894 and was called lucy renee mathlide schwob before taking on the pseudonym claude cahun in 1917. by the age of 4 cahuns mother was placed in a psychiatric ward, due to mental health issues and was taken care of by her grandmother. cahun began taking photographs in 1912. in 1912 cahun and partner, suzanne malherbe who was also known as marcel moore. both of them collaborated artistically and created many sculptures, photomontages and collages. cahuns work incorporates the aesthetic of surrealism and can be considered to be tableaux. they were best known for their self portraits. cahuns work is based around politics and personal issues and aimed to break the sterotypical views of gender roles. In their autobiography they wrote, “Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.”. just before WWII, in 1937, both moore and cahun moved to jersey. during the WWII, claude cahun was an active resistance worker and propagdist, and did this by producing anti-german fliers. the couple even dressed up and attended german military events and placed their fliers in the soliders pockets. in 1944, both were arrested and sentenced to death, but due to the surrender of the war in 1945 this never took place.
analysis
The lighting within this photograph is natural, as when this image was produced artificial lighting wasn’t very popular so wasn’t used often. However the natural lighting has been carefully placed, in front of the face, so that it is illuminated. There is also light coming from above, which creates this glare over the mirror. This image is in black and white to allow for strong contrasts to be created. In the image there is also a strong tonal range, as it has dark blacks and bright whites. Some elements such as, the background and the table the mirror is on, looks 2D and flat, due to a lack of texture and shadowing. Whereas some elements such as, the mirror and the face, look 3D, due to intense shadowing and the glare from the lighting. The face is placed within the center of the image, making the viewers eyes be instantly attracted to it. During the time this image was taken Cahun was living in Jersey, which was under occupation from the Germans. This image links to this time period as the face looks trapped within the mirror, similar to how people would have been feeling living in Jersey. This image also reflects how Cahun may have felt as a child growing up in a Judaism household and believing the things she did.
points of comparison
- both investigate gender stereotypes
- both take interesting images that make the viewer think in detail and ponder their feelings
- both explore new ideas, eg gender
- cahun was living the 1930’s
- o’donnell is living in the 2000’s
- o’donnell also makes films
- cahun was an activist
- cahun also wrote and collaged