Full definition of identity– 1a : the distinguishing character or personality of an individual : individuality. b : the relation established by psychological identification. 2 : the condition of being the same with something described or asserted establish the identity of stolen goods.

Mind Map

Identity in photography– A photograph resembles the likeness of what appeared before the lens. So, in the case of a profile picture, family album or mug shot, identity is based on the repetition of sameness that is evidenced by the image produced by the camera. Here I have combined the idea of a mood board and a mind map to illustrate my initial ideas both through words and images, this has helped me visualise my first ideas, meaning that I can more easily identify what I would like to explore further.

Gender Identity

Definition– Gender identity is the personal sense of one’s own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person’s assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the individual’s gender identity.

Gender identity as a concept was popularised by John Money in the 1960s. He founded the Gender Identity Clinic at Johns Hopkins University and formulated, defined, and coined the term “gender role” and later expanded it to gender-identity/role.

Role in my project– I have a few ideas I would like to explore including one where I link my family history, focusing on the idea of the role of woman when my grandparents were middle aged.

Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae. Cahun’s work is both political and personal.

Cahun made ambiguity a theme in a lifelong exploration of gender and sexual identity as a writer and photographer. Decades after her death, she has a growing following among art historians, feminists and people in the LGBTQ+ community. The photographs are by far her most compelling work. At first, scholars thought of them as self-portraits. But the gathering consensus is that Cahun choreographed and posed for the photos, and that her romantic partner, Marcel Moore, who was born Suzanne Malherbe, often took the photographs.

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As writer and photographer, Cahun worked at upending convention. “My role,” she wrote in an essay published after her death, “was to embody my own revolt and to accept, at the proper moment, my destiny, whatever it may be.”

In the 1990s, she received a rush of attention as gender issues were gathering steam around the world. “Suddenly,” said Vince Aletti, a New York photography critic and curator, “she seemed incredibly of the moment.”

Cahun’s photographs have been displayed in group shows in the last two years in nearly a dozen museums in London, Paris, Washington, Melbourne, Warsaw and elsewhere. She is featured in a group exhibition running through early July at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Another group show opened in Bonn, Germany, in late May, and one opened in Sweden in mid-June.

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Image Analysis

4th photo in this gallery: The main feature of this image, is clearly the face, with the significance of the face paired with the fact that the image is composed of a reflection, help to tell a story. It can be implied that this is linked to gender identity as the reflection means Cuhan doesn’t know their true self despise looking in the mirror everyday, this image could link more to a search for identity mixed with the confused on not knowing your own self. Furthermore, Cahun is looking lost in this reflection which may mean they are suffering of the lost of identity, and this idea is supported by the sad expression on their face, I like how this work is relatable to many people who are apart of the LGBTQ+ community and how much revolutionary these ideas were a5t the time. As during the time of World War II concepts such as gender roles and sexuality were not usually openly discussed and challenged, making Cahun’s work even more remarkable.

LARA GELKS

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Lara Gilks is a photographer based in Wellington, New Zealand. She uses elements of nature, water, light, beauty in the context of the dreamscape between two worlds. Lara explores that dreamscape through the themes of metamorphosis, mortality, escapism, ascension, peace, silence. Through her work she seeks to create tension and an opportunity for the viewer to reconcile elements that don’t naturally fit together. Her pictures provide much space for imagination and interpretation. She wants to engage the viewer and create images that ask questions. 

Why did I choose Lara Gilks?

I chose Lara Gilks because I was inspired with

CLAUDE CAHUN

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Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present a dizzying kaleidoscopic mix of mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. Born in France, Cahun lived mostly on the island of Jersey with long-term love, Marcel Moore. Also known as Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, they both adopted their preferred gender-neutral pseudonyms during early adulthood. Moore, although often invisible, was always present – typically taking the photographs and also authoring collages – and in this sense was as much artist collaborator as Cahun’s personal support. Described in Cahun’s own words as a “hunt”, through a combination of text and imagery, Cahun’s exploration of self is relentless and at times unsettling. From circus performer, clothed in layers of artifice, to a stripped-down Buddhist monk grounded by integrity, Cahun is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with multiplicity. Tragically in line with the fragmentary nature of Cahun’s outlook, much of the artist’s work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. What remains bares interesting parallel to the title of Cahun’s diaristic publication Aveux Non Avenus, translated as Disavowals, which enigmatically suggests that for all that is revealed and given, much is still hidden or has been lost.

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD

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Ralph Eugene Meatyard lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs. Meatyard’s creative circle included mystics and poets, such as Thomas Merton and Guy Davenport, as well as the photographers Cranston Ritchie and Van Deren Coke, who were mentors and fellow members of the Lexington Camera Club.

Meatyard’s work spanned many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits—often set in abandoned places—to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. He also collaborated with his friend Wendell Berry on the 1971 book The Unforeseen Wilderness, for which Meatyard contributed photographs of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Meatyard’s final series, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, are cryptic double portraits of friends and family members wearing masks and enacting symbolic dramas.

is best-known photography featured dolls and masks, or family, friends and neighbours pictured in abandoned buildings or in ordinary suburban backyards. Ralph Eugene Meatyard lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs.

Identity – being what or who a thing or person is.

Claude Cahun

Photoshoot plans –

1st: Photos taken of my book from my point of view in various places.

2nd: Similar to Henry Hargreaves work in the studio using books about feminism and working hard.

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Contact sheet for 1st Photoshoot

Best shots –

Contact sheets for 2nd Photoshoot

For this photoshoot, I used different coloured card to create bright backgrounds which is similar to Henry Hargreaves work and I think that these worked well with the books because the colours compliment each other nicely.

Best shots –