RESEARCH AND PLANNING

I feel as though my research was quick and easy process. This is because we had Shannon O’Donnell, a documentary film maker come in and inspire us with her video surrounding identity politics in the theme of gender fluidity. I fell in love with the elegance of her film’s and the way that she made them; through filming herself in front of the camera and experimenting with different clothing and positions. It is no doubt that she inspired me hugely and influenced the production of my film. We had spent a couple of weeks looking at Culture Wars and Identity Politics of which I looked into and created a blog post about, showing my knowledge and understanding. To me, culture wars and identity politics were hugely important, as they are in society in general, however I felt a personal connection with these certain topics. Things like gender, race, abortion etc are all things that I have a strong opinion on and things that I have wished to explore for a while. This is why I took such a personal approach to my film (body shaming and how women are stereotyped and expected to look a certain way). Not only had I been discriminated for that in the past, but it was something I felt very strongly about. Overall, the research I did and the help of Shannon O’Donnell was extremely helpful, I may have explored Identity Politics further and developed a more rich, in-depth blog post however I fully understood it.

The planning for my video however was quite weak. I didn’t quite know where to start with the whole filming process, on the other hand, again, Shannon O’Donnell inspired me hugely and I know that I wanted to use the same filming technique as her and the concept for my film came to me almost instantly due to personal experiences. My story board though for example, was quite weak as I had very little idea where I wanted to go with it and I wanted to jump straight in – the impulsive decisions that I made however were what created my film. This is similar with the voiceover – there was no real plan and I almost jumped into it and read aloud my stream of consciousness, again though, this is what made my film so excellent.

FILMING

Again, filming came with many impulsive decisions which isn’t necessarily a strong point as there was no real structure to my plan. Again though, it came out brilliantly. The weaknesses of my filming included things like not having the correct equipment – I found it difficult to film on an IPhone due to the portrait format that it had, this made me struggle with angles etc. I also didn’t have a tripod to lay my phone on, that left me scattering around looking for anything and everything I could get my hands on that would be able to balance my phone in the correct position. Another problem was the area in which I was filming, I was struggling for a long time on where I should film that had a plain background yet was also a spacious area – due to my house being quite small there was really no area. So, I decided to hang my grey blanket over my door in order to create a back drop. All of these elements made it hard to film, and thorough planning would’ve cancelled these issues out however, my impulsive quick-thinking allowed me to make a good, aesthetically pleasing movie. Next time, I will most definitely think in depth of how, where, why, what and when I am filming to reduce the stress.

EDITING PROCESS

To begin with, I was quite nervous about working with Premiere as it was a software I hadn’t used before and it appeared to be quite complicated. But, I managed to get the hang of it and after that it was a fairly quick and easy process. I was also worried about the fact that I had filmed on an IPhone, and that it wouldn’t upload efficiently, however there were no issues when it came to importing them and they rendered perfectly. Editing was the most time consuming process, but it usually is, as you have to re-watch it a number of times and make sure it was perfect. The audio was also easier to import than I thought, and fit so perfectly with my movie. The voiceover, again filmed on my IPhone and via camera, this also worried me concerning importation, however all I had to do was delete the footage of my voiceover and separate that from the actual audio – again, easier than I thought it was going to be. Lastly, I thought that the subtitles would be a really time consuming process however I found my own little knack when it came to it. I simply selected each frame and added the subtitles with the text tool – this made it much easier and cut down the work load so much.

OVERALL

Overall, I am extremely happy with how my movie turned out, It looks amazing and it is exactly how I envisioned it to look. The impulsive decision making and lack of equipment may have cut the quality slightly however, it now has a contemporary look to it and I also wanted that atmosphere to be portrayed. So, although my technique and processes weren’t perfect, I feel if they were, my video wouldn’t have turned out the way it did. As mentioned before, if I were to make a film again, I would put more effort into research and planning and not just jump straight into it.

As previously shown in a last blog post, I have already selected a number of still images that came from me selecting specific frames from my movie, and print screening them in order to create a still image. Now I will be presenting these still images in a certain layout that will go on to be published as a newspaper spread.

SEQUENCE

Inspirations for my Sequence design:

Duane Michals

Bernd and Hilla Becher

MY OWN STORYBOARD/TYPOLOGY LAYOUT

STORY BOARD

In this case, I opened Photoshop, opened a custom canvas and began opening the still images that I had already chosen and edited. I then would crop each of them into a square format and placed the images in the order that they appeared in my movie to create a storyboard.

I feel as though this turned out quite nicely however some of the images for example, the shower still image, appears a little stretched which takes away the aesthetics of the storyboard. I also dislike how the lighting is extremely inconsistent across the story board however this does create some juxtaposition.

TYPOLOGY

For this typology, I collected the different frames that involved a number of different body parts as this is the category I decided on for this typology. Most of them were easy to gather as a lot of my movie involved showing various different body parts, however, specifically for the bottom two photographs, I had to gather a couple of other still images that aren’t explicitly showing body parts and zoom in onto specific areas like my hand. I also leveled each image a little more to my preference and to create an eerie/dark atmosphere among the typology.

Overall, I’m really happy with this typology and wouldn’t change anything.

JUXTAPOSITION

I made a few juxtaposing spreadsheets due to the fact that my still images all quite similar and I wasn’t sure how the images could juxtapose each other therefore I experimented with the images.

I chose the still image of my back a few times as I feel as though this is a really powerful image, I also think the contrast within it is really great and creates a clear, aesthetic photograph. I feel as though my favourite justxaposing images are either the second spread sheet or the last, just above us. This is because in the second one, I feel as though not only do the images juxtapose each other, but the lighting does too. It also shows to sides of different stories, for example, the picture of my back is showing body insecurity, and the other is showing facial insecurity which creates the overall theme of not loving yourself. The last spread sheet is also my favourite because of the strong contrasts between the two. The shadows in the first image have many strong shadows that make it really aesthetically pleasing and the same with the second image. I also like how one image involves clothing while the other doesn’t – representing exposure and not wanting to cover up while the other image is clothes and is almost as though the subject doesn’t want anyone to see her body.

FULL BLEED

This is the image that I’d like to make a full bleed page spread due to the fact that it could have many connotations and meanings. There are a lot of emotions that could be interpreted here for example, fear, disgust, insecurity, anger, guilt etc. I also love the harsh shadows that are created in this image. I took it into Photoshop once more before uploading just to enhance those shadows and to create a darker, more mysterious tone to the image.

After filming my footage that adhered to my story board, I then had to transfer the clips from an IPhone into the video editing software, Premiere.

I filmed all of my clips on my IPhone, which helped when it came to importing them. I simple connected my phone to my laptop, pressed Import in Premiere and chose the clips that I wanted to use. After choosing, they appear in the box circles in the print screen above. Once they are there, I dragged them into the box on the right of that, where the purple, green and blue horizontal lines are. Doing this means that, that specific clip is now part of the video and that you are able to manipulate it as you wish.

After importing my clips, I decided where I’d like them. The area circled in the image below is where my clips are places (in the V1 area).

This allowed me to make clips shorter if I needed them to be, usually by just right clicking them and dragging the videos to the left, or there is a razor tool to the left of the clips in the tool bar if you’d like to cut off a section of a clip. One important thing to remember when editing is to render your clips so that everything flows nicely. To do this, you go to sequence, render in and out, usually this doesn’t take long. The lines that go diagonal across my clips mean that I have locked the V1 section, this means that I won’t be able to manipulate the clips at all, I usually lock it so that I don’t accidentally move anything or delete anything, I also lock it when adding audio.

After I had all my clips in the correct place and I was happy with the sequencing of my video, I then added audio. I wanted the tone to be sad yet calming at the same time so I decided to go with classical music as my background sound.

The area circled in the image above is where my audio sits (A1, A for audio). I went online to sound.org and found a lengthy piece of classical music that fit perfectly with my video and produced the best vibe. I added this through importing it from my downloads and simply dragged it under the clips. I then trimmed it to about where the clips end however left it a bit over so there was room for my title//credits at the end. I also tried to make the sound fit with certain parts of my film, for example there’s a really dramatic part in the audio that I made line up with quite a dramatic part of the movie. This worked really well. The sound didn’t come with any clips so that took away any difficulty.

After adding the classical music I had to add the voiceover that was filmed on my IPhone via camera.

The area circled is where my voiceover sits (A2). Since my voiceover included footage (it was just a black screen but this still is a clip since I recorded it on camera), therefore I made sure to lock everything else so that the clip doesn’t get mixed up on top of the footage that I had sequenced perfectly. So, I imported the voiceover clip from my phone, placed it in the editing box and deleted the footage separately from the voice over so only the sound stayed. This worked really well and nothing was ruined. The audio, classical music and footage worked really well together.

Additionally, with the audio I had to go to the audio levels ad increase/decrease the sound. I turned down the classical music so that it was a soft background noise and turned my voice over up so that I could be clearly heard but not deafening at the same time.

So, once my audio and footage were done, I decided to add my subtitles to make it suitable for a variety of people to watch and added my title page at the end.

So, as you can see, the pink section within the editing box are my subtitles. I used the text tool and added the subtitles on each frame and where I was speaking. I made the text white and changed the font so that it was a little more rounded. This process was easier than I thought it was going to be. I also made the subtitles central so that they were always in the same place. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to render the subtitles hence the red line above them. However this didn’t effect the quality or the exporting of the video at all. I then added the title page. There was already a blank screen at the ending of my video where the audio ran over the footage (which is what I wanted) so all I had to do was add text to that blank bit of footage. I added the title ‘Dysmorphia’ to the end in a larger, fancier text and my name at the bottom under the title in a smaller font.

After the footage, the audio, the subtitles and my title page, I was finally done and exported the video to my documents. I then uploaded the video and embedded it in the next blog post.

After filming the pieces inspired by my mood board. I print screened particular parts of the footage so that I will have some still images. After screen printing, I put them into Photoshop and edited them slightly through levelling so that I could accentuate different parts of my body in particular scenes e.g my rib cage. This fits my title of ‘DYSMORPHIA’ quite well when including the still images.

In these first few images in particular, I was looking to accentuate different features of my body for the movie, this gave the idea that I was picking at every little bit of my body due to the judgement that I have received. The use of levelling helped with the accentuation with my bones as it created shadows that fell beside the structures and helped them pop out in the image. I like these photos because my goal was achieved (accentuation) however I do feel as though the images are quite dark. This is due to the levelling however without the darkness I wouldn’t of achieved that level of accentuation of my bone structure. The darkness also creates a great contrast between my body and the background.

These images are a bit brighter and do not focus so much on different parts of my body but instead reflect in a way the numbness that I feel about myself on a day to day bases. The levelling in these images helped with the contrast and added a little boldness to the images in order to make them more intriguing. The stills represent a really mundane atmosphere which is what I was going for overall in my film. Overall, I really like these still images and I’m also proud of how I managed to replicate my thoughts and ideas from a story board to literal footage and still images. These really reflect my concept and allow my message to get across.

As I’ve mentioned before, I want my film to have soft, calm visuals with the lighting reflecting the mood of the movie. It will be in black and white and many short clips within it, mainly of myself representing the concept, landscapes and soft visuals. I will be filming the video, therefore I will need to think specifically and carefully about the angles and where I will place the camera. I will also need to think about any props and what the background will look like in each frame/where the shooting will take place. To remind, my concept for this video is Body Shaming and people having a false representation of women’s bodies, this therefore having a negative effect on young girls, teenagers and women.

Voice Over Plan:

I’ve decided that for my sound I will use a voice over of me essentially speaking out loud my stream of consciousness and how I feel and what has caused me to feel like this. Also in the background there will be classical music just to add that somber feeling to the film. I’ll have to plan it out and do a few drafts before I record the voiceover on my iphone.

This is a piece that I wrote in about 10 minutes that represents feelings about myself and why I feel this way:

I dislike my body, because of what you’ve said to me. I never took notice, until you did. My brain is ignored and my personality is discarded. My image is all that matters to you. No one cares if i’m funny, or smart, or sweet. They care only what I look like. I’m simply just a shell to you. An object. For your own pleasure. But what do I get from this? Never feeling good enough. And always trying to change. Do I look too thin? Do I look too fat? Will they approve of this? Will they like me in this? I’m sick of counting calories, and pushing myself to exhaustion. I want to love my body, but no one will let me. My body is my temple, and it keeps me alive, I know it’s not perfect, but it’s about the inside.

Story Board:

So, within my story there will be a number of frames. There isn’t really a set structure to my movie that normally films do have like a beginning middle or end. The first frame of my story board is a close up image of my body, I will be accentuating different parts such as my ribs; sucking my stomach in and out to create a morphed image of my body. This frame may be repeated a few times with different areas of my body.

The second frame will be me looking in the mirror, without my camera equipment in view so it looks real life. I may be doing numerous things in this shot such as brushing my hair, sorting out my clothes, staring and picking at my body etc. Again, there may be multiple scenes of this within my film.

The third frame is again more parts of my body, this time it’ll be things like my legs and my arms. The shot will be very close up from a head on angle so that it is clear to the viewers what they are really looking at.

The fourth frame will be a shot of me in the shower. Showering and washing yourself is quite a private, vulnerable experience where you are able to see all parts of your body which is why I think it’ll be a good shot to get for my body shaming movie.

The fifth frame will be a bowl of food, or any food really. Within my voice over I mention that I am sick of counting calories, so, this frame will match up to that piece of voice recording and also introduce the idea that eating and what you eat also comes into body image.

The sixth frame will involve me lying on the bed as f I’m exhausted, worn out and generally down. This again will match up with my voice over when I mention the fact that I am exhausted and that I just want to love my body. I won’t be just lying there I may roll over and cover my face with my duvet as if I’m really upset and wanting to get away from it all.

Cahun’s work focused strongly on undermining traditional concepts of gender stereotypes and gender roles, Cahun considered herself as gender neutral. O’Donnell’s work is very similar to that of Cahun’s; exploring gender stereotypes and the fluidity of gender through clothes and body language. Their methods of work are very similar, both involving self-portraits of themselves and having a mundane, atmosphere to their projects.

Both of their concepts and projects can be considered political in the terms of Identity. Identity politics is a form of politics grounded in and organised by a shared identity that has been the target of unjust practices. Identity politics emerged in the second half of the twentieth century as a way or organising political claims on behalf of oppressed social groups typically, but not exclusively, in liberal democracies. such shared identities may include: ethnic, racial, religious, sexual, disabilities or gender-based. As you can see, Cahun and O’Donnell’s work explores gender which is in the category of Identity Politics. Cahun especially (born in 1894) would’ve been stigmatized for her out look, dress sense, hair cut etc and definitely would’ve been oppressed in those times. Times are very different now and people who are exploring their gender and the fluidity of that are now more welcomed and understood, however you could argue that themes within gender such as gender fluidity, gender transitions etc are still oppressed and still attract a lot of hatred from others which is why gender would still be considered political.

Not only is the concept of both artist’s work considered political, you could also say that the photographs and still images that the two produce are political in themselves. Claude tended to create self portraits that would flaunt her then-stigmatized look, this would’ve been controversial then and would’ve stirred up quite a talk. The clothes she wore, for example wearing trousers, the way she styled her hair, the way she positioned herself in images would’ve been abnormal to have been created and thus oppressed in itself. The audience may have not know of Cahun’s gender fluidity, yet the way she presented herself would’ve been criticised; falling into the category of identity politics. Additionally, Cahun used to release images that were almost mocking the audience for being attracted to what’s not on offer (because women were seen as desirable objects to men that were aesthetic, and Cahun mocked this idea). For example, in the image on the left of Cahun, she is dressed as a body builder, prehaps referring to her identity or multiple identity. Her t-shirt writes in the image: “I am in training do not kiss me “. This is a straightforward denial of the invitation evident in the rest of the portrait (accentuated nipples, thick makeup, love heart on legs etc). This is an attempt to ward off sexual trespassers. O’Donnell’s work is very similar again, she tends to use still images and experiments with clothing that have masculine or feminine connotations. She regularly dresses up in things like suits, with bathing costumes over the top which even to this day would be considered quite unique and different. This is again a form of identity politics; exploring and mixing outfits that define masculinity or femininity. Experimentation like this are still, to this day oppressed especially in certain cultures.

What Is a Manifesto?

A Manifesto, by definition is a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.

Theme of My Manifesto: Rebellion

Subjects: Identity, Gender, Media, Stereotyping, False Representations, Discrimination

Visuals: A soft, sad atmosphere. I could represent the mood of the film with the lighting – for example, dull, grey lighting symbolises sadness within the film. In black and white so that it gives the film a historical feel.

Sounds: Potentially a voice over by me, rhythmic and metaphorical, accompanied by instrumental music. If i am to do a voice over I’ll have to write something expressing my feelings, potentially a poem or a stream of consciousness.

Title: Imperfect, I’m Okay With It, Know My Worth, More Than This, Dysmorphia

Inspirations:

MILES CARTER

Miles Carter is a gifted poet, composer and orator who has gained a huge following from his short films that can be inspirational, uplifting or even depressing. His videos contain many short clips, unsure whether the filming is down to him, followed by the sound of his soothing, rhythmic voice and pleasant music in the background. His short films have a vintage aesthetic with some videos looking as though they have been filmed on an old camera. However some are more modern looking. Most of his clips contain beautiful views and scenes, couples, and sometimes himself.

I like this artist as this is how I would like my visuals to be. Lots of short clips and a depressing, calm atmosphere. He also uses a voice over which I also really like. Also, I like the idea of filming himself. Shannon O’Donnell also uses the technique of filming herself which is something that I most likely will be doing.

Overall Concept:

Women more so, are stereotyped, falsely represented and put into categories purely based on their body types. Often, I have experienced negative comments thrown at me about my weight and how my body looks, I’ve realised that this has an enormous effect on my self confidence, my anxiety and in general the way I view myself, questioning my identity, and wanting my body to look like something else.

We have a specific representation and ‘type’ of how, as women, our bodies ‘should’ look. This is mainly down to the media. Many applications including, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and especially the Porn Industry have major impacts on how we view women. These apps often have hugely influencing models and influencers who appear to have the ‘ideal body type’. These models often tend to have had plastic surgery and other body modifications in order to achieve their looks, giving young teens unrealistic expectations of their bodies. Body shaming also exists, as I mentioned before I have had numerous comments thrown at me purely because of my body type and it can have numerous effects on a person. I almost felt as though people don’t like me for men, they don’t care about my brain or my personality, they care only if I have an appealing body type or not. This therefore binds with different subjects such as Identity, Stereotyping, Gender and Representations. These subjects tend to fall into Identity Politics and Culture Wars.

I would like my film to expose the effects that these false representations have on young girls, but have an uplifting feel towards it to the end to show that everyone is unique and that everyone is different, therefore there is no perfect body type. Revealing my own emotions, thoughts and feelings in the film will help to have a more personal vibe to the film, gaining a relationship with the viewers.

Mood Board:

A suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organisation 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.

It was formen in 1903, by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil obedience. This meant that the suffragets usually engaged in heckling politicians, trying to storm parliament, being sexually assaulted during battles with the police, chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows, setting fire to post boxes and buildings, setting bombs, and faced enormous anger and ridicule from the media. This was a shock factor tactic in order to get people’s attention and to urge politicians to change the rights for women as soon as possible.

The suffraget campaign was suspended when WW1 broke out in 1914. After the war however, the Representation of People Act 1918 gave the vote to women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications. Ten years later, wome gained electoral equality with men when the Representation of People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave all women the ability to vote at age 21.

This can be compared in a way to BLM (Black Lives Matter). Black people specifically have been scrutinized by police, mainly in America, however there has been examples of this kinds of prejudice in the UK also – police are making a stereotype against black people and harming them – sometimes to the point of death – due to the stereotype that is held by the police. This is unfair and is a form of discrimination held against them purely due to their skin colour. This is the same for women in the early 20th Century, because they were women, they were seen as unfit to vote and

were stereotyped into being less educated, less intelligent, less dominant etc. Because of their gender, their rights were taken away from them. The types of protests can also be compared, BLM and Votes for Women used violent, shock tactics in order to gain attention from world leaders and politicians since no one was listening or paying attention any other way. During BLM protests, riots were held, looting took place and fires were ignited.

Dadaism was a movement with explicitly political overtones and was a reaction to senseless slaughter of the trenches of WW1. It essentially declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment’s descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense.

Popular Dada artists include: Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, George Grosz, Otto Dix, John Heartfield, Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Richard Hulsenbeck and Marcel Janco.

There is some controversy over where Dada first originated. Some believe that the movement first developed in the Cabaret Voltaire, an avant-garde nightclub in Zurich, others claim a Romanian origin. Dadaism is often characterised by humor and whimsy, tending towards the absurd. This kind of attitude was used as a satirical critique of the prevailing societal and political systems . to which the onslaught of WW1 was largely attributed to.

The name Dada is one derived from nonsense and irrationality. In some languages in means ‘yes, yes’ as a parody of the population’s senseless obedience to authority, whilst in others it has completely different meanings or connotations.

Claude Cahun

Cahun was a French sculptor, writer and photographer born 25th October 1894 till the 8th December 1954. They’re real name is Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob. She adopted the gender-ambiguous name Claude Cahun in 1917 and is best known for their self portraits, in which Cahun assumed a variety of personae. Their work is both political and personal and often undermined traditional concepts of static gender roles. In their autobiography, they explained, ‘Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. ‘ Her work was very controversial for her time and even when to extremes such as shaving her head, which would’ve been frowned upon within her time; she was courageous and unafraid to express herself. She was often considered part of the Surrealist artist group due to her ‘odd’ and ‘different’ work for her time.

https://www.jerseyheritage.org/collection-items/claude-cahun

Shannon O’Donnell

Shannon O’Donnell was born in Jersey, Channel Islands and also attended Hautlieu School, studying Photography, Media and History which all seem to interlink within her work. Her images explore themes around gendered experience with a focus on femininity and masculinity as gendered traits. Through her deep research and a sociological approach to her work she explores the self and identity. Her fascination lies within questioning society and challenging traditional views of gender through her work. She claims her work is informed by her own personal experience and through interviewing specific demographics to help gage a sociological understanding of how gender is viewed or challenged within mainstream society.

Shannon came into Hautlieu and gave us a presentation that described her life as a student and showed us her inspirations, her research methods, her documentary films, and her techniques when it comes to creating photographs and videos.

Her inspirations are: Claude Cahun, Duane Michaels, Casa Susanna, Walter Pfeiffer, Adi Nes, Judith Butler and June Singer.

I noted some of her techniques when it comes to filming/photographing. She enjoys the use of sound scaping which consists of recording different sounds and compiling them together to put in the background of her videos, creating a dramatic and compelling effect. She also tends to record herself in front of the camera instead of actually photographing herself. She enjoys playing with her movements, actions and tends to have fun in front of the camera while recording in order to get the perfect shot for her narrative. After recording herself, she puts her videos into a software and actually print screen’s sections of her videos that she feels fits with her narrative and thus creates a still image out of her videos. She then edits the still images, creating an intriguing still image. She insists that tests are very important when it comes to filming in order to get the right lighting, exposure etc.

https://www.shannonodonnell.co.uk/about

Comparison of Cahun and O’Donnell

TECHNICAL: The lighting that the two artists seem to use are very similar and appear to both use natural lighting. Both also seem to have a high level of control over the camera. It is easy to recognise that they have positioned and located their camera in a specific way in order to get their self portraits correct. Both artists most likely also used a lower aperture in order to achieve a brighter photograph since natural lighting was used. I know that Shannon in fact did not use shutter speed as she likes to video herself in certain position and then create still images out of that video, however, Claude Cahun most likely used a fast shutter speed so that she didn’t have to stay in the position for a long amount of time since her images were self portraits.

VISUAL: Both artists, as you can see from the images above, enjoy photographing and editing their images in black and white. Claude is an early photographer, therefore the technology wasn’t quite advanced as it is now, therefore her images are most likely black and white due to the technology that was available in Cahun’s day. On the other hand, Shannon has clearly edited her still images to be black and white, most likely to increase the atmosphere of her narrative in her images, and also maybe because she was aiming to create images similar to those of Cahun’s. The tones of their images in this example is quite bright, however often the tone of their images are quite dark which creates a mysterious atmosphere and also a historical atmosphere. The composition of both their images are a little different. Cahun clearly positioned herself into specific poses and in different places in order to create a nicely composed image, however O’Donnell enjoys filming herself in front of the camera in various different poses using various different movements in order to capture the perfect still image while editing.

CONTEXTUAL&CONCEPTUAL: To conclude, both artists have very similar concepts. They both enjoy exploring identity and more specifically how gender is a social construct and they both enjoy breaking that boundary of a construct concept and exploring fluidity of gender through photography. As you can see, Cahun was not gender-constructed and explored the boundaries through hair experimentation and clothing experimentation. Shannon also does this through her videos and still images. As you can see in Shannon’s photo on the right, she is exploring gender by portraying herself in a suit which is seen as powerful and masculine, almost breaking the stereotypes. Both artists; photography narratives also come from a personal standpoint within their identity.