‘Claude Cahun, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, was a French lesbian photographer, sculptor and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1917 and is best known for self-portraits, in which Cahun assumed a variety of personae.’ As a gender neutral person, Claude created many artworks starting at 20 years old, up to her death in her 50’s. She used this artwork to express her identity- this being mostly gender identity. I would describe her work as fascinating and odd with a sense of deep meaning yet a bit of fun.

Much of the artist’s work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. This also meant that many of her found pieces were not dated or named.

“Here, Cahun presents herself as bold, androgynous, and doubled by a mirrored-reflection. The image is lush with textures and tones: the checkerboard jacket, highlighted hair, and smooth sun-kissed skin all make the image vivid with the abundance of life. Traditionally, the inclusion of a mirror in art was used as a convenient way to expose two enticing views of a female subject or, alternatively, as a way to emphasize a woman’s vanity. In this case however, the ‘real’ Cahun looks away from the mirror and engages with and meets the viewer’s gaze. Cahun rejects being typecast as a passive woman who is visually consumed by admiring herself. There is no sin of vanity at work here, and instead qualities of thoughtfulness, exploration, and self-assurance confront the viewer.” – Art historian Shelley Rice

Claude Cahun was not the basic photographer of her time, she liked to explore different methods and tried many different things with her artworks, for example double exposure (as you can see above), photomontages and the use of masks and other props. In this image we see a dark backdrop- this makes Claude’s light skin pop, making her the only focus point. As it is only her head and shoulders in the photograph, it allows the viewers to focus on her facial expression and bold look. The way the two exposures have been also put together create a sense of symmetry in the image- even though there is not.

Lucas Simoes is an independent artist based in São Paulo, with a background in architecture and design. His experiences of training as an architect redefined his perceptions of art and opened new paths of discovery. He was born in 1980, whereas Cahun was born in 1894- this is almost a generation apart.

 His works explore the limits and unpredictability of behaviour of materials and the final results always spans between an act of research and a genuine art piece. I will be focusing on his photographic project called ‘Burns’ where he would print out photographs of people and create burns in the paper.

“To burn pictures, a way of physically erase a memory by burning it, so with time, the image that is burnt will disappear from your memory.
The pictures in that series are not mine, I took it from many different sources, and the coloured tag under it is my way of telling that the image is not original, but printed in a paper, it symbolises the “ink on paper”…

Every photograph we take represents a memory, one we can see clearer than our brains remember. In my project, this could represent how people are seen in memory/remembered- and how it varies and changes.

“Because personal and collective memories are so inextricably intertwined with photographs—the result of the medium’s progressive saturation of everyday life for the past century and a half—this revolutionary change in the production and dissemination of photographic images is altering society’s relationship to memory.” – https://www.eastman.org/matter-memory-photography-object-digital-age

He describes these photographs as memories which he is ‘burning away’. This work is different to Claude’s in the sense that hers shows confidence and almost self-discovery in some, whereas Lucas’s work represents the erasing of memories and pictures from someone’s mind. He also added strips of hot colour to his work which made the images pop- and Claude’s images consisted of high contrast which made her images pop in a different way to Lucas’s. Another difference between these two artists is that Claude would take self portraits- and Lucas took images of others that weren’t his.

Jesse Draxler is a mixed media and multidisciplinary artist, and his pieces combine painting, photography, collage, typography and digital painting. He also wrote a book in which he incorporated the first photograph below among many others. “Misophonia incorporates various mediums and styles from figurative painting and harsh typography to deliriously textural photography and collage. The book serves not only as a master collection of Draxler’s work throughout his career to date, but also as a living organism, in which each piece communicates with the others, the whole, and itself.”

The photographs above are the ones I will be focusing on. Draxler cut out sections of the same person at different angles and put them all together. With my project this could potentially represent the different angles and perspectives that people are seen by.

An aspect of the theme Identity that I would like to explore and express is that the way you see yourself, whether that’s physically or mentally, and how it differs from all the different ways that others may view you. Each and every person around you view you in a different way than you do yourself, they see other angles, have different memories of how you looked and acted. There are a variety of ways that this message can be conveyed through one or a few images. This can be linked to ‘body dysmorphia’ which is a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of one’s own body part or appearance is severely flawed and therefore warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it (most of the time, only the person sees this flaw and others do not notice it to the extent that the person themselves does)

Approach idea 1: The use of mirrors, glass, plastic to create reflections and or distortions representing viewpoints and angles of how a person is seen or sees themselves.

Approach idea 2: Multi-exposure images to display multiple viewpoints similarly to my first idea.

The definition of identity is who you are, the way you think about yourself, the way you are viewed by the world and the characteristics that define you. An example of identity is a person’s name . An example of identity are the traditional characteristics of an American. Identity has two important features: continuity and contrast. Continuity means that people can count on you to be the same person tomorrow as you are today. Obviously, people change but many important aspects of social identity remain relatively stable such as gender, surname, language and ethnicity. Your identity can be influenced by “place”, such as where you grew up. It is much easier to understand an individuals identity when you realize everyone is a product of their environment, that is why I think that “place” is the biggest influence that shapes your identity and who you are as a person.

Mood Board

Mind Map

Exploring Identity

Photographers that explore identity: Sam Contis, speaks to the idea of community and the social self. Andrzej Steinbach, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Sofia Borges and Shilpa Gupta. Photographers that explore identity solely through portraiture: Kandara Enyeasi, Cedric Nzaka, Zarita Zevallos, Ussi’n Yala and Thompson S. Ekong.

Phillip Toledano’s series ‘Days With My Father’ follows his fathers life after his mother died and how he is coping living without her and dealing with the grief.

Sam Contis’ series “Deep Springs” speaks to the idea of community and the social self. Contis spent lengthy visits at a traditionally all-male liberal arts college in the high desert of California, a remote backdrop that contrasts starkly with the group mode of collegiate life. “Contis’ subjects are pictured at a moment in their lives – the early college years – that has been typically understood as a time of coming into one’s adult self,” said Gallun.  “In this case, such identity-formation is impacted by group social dynamics as well as connection to the characteristic western landscape.”

Zerita Zevallos focuses on the racial aspect of identity with her work. Her work is described as having ‘those unique characteristics of blending the ruthless reality and trauma Black folks go through on a daily basis, while capturing the attention of all gazes towards a narrative far too long ignored’.  Her visual composition is simplistic but powerful and elegant, all while using a model presenting a physique long rejected by Western social standards of beauty. I believe that her work, subject and concepts are elegant and so timelessly impactful.