Identity is what sets an individual apart from those surrounding them and is influenced of by a persons environment, upbringing, gender, culture and more. These factors can change how people think of others and themselves which can also lead to a lack of identity where an individual may question who they are and may feel disconnected from who they are as a person. All of these factors can affect how a person dresses/acts towards others due to their personal experience throughout life.

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Claude Cahun [1894-1954]

Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer who challenged identity, gender and social norms by taking androgynous self-portraits, looking drastically different in each portrait due to the characters they portrayed in each photoshoot. They embraced gender fluidity in their work by dressing up in different clothing [most of which society wouldn’t have accepted back then] and would pose in interesting ways, making their work easily recognisable due to their artistic flare.

“Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.”^[4]

– Claude Cahun

Angela Kelly

Angela Kelly is an Irish photographer whose work focuses on documenting women and exploring historical places. I will be taking inspiration from some of her early work, specifically her collection ‘Woman’s Identity’. In this collection, she takes a variety of self portraits, all in black and white, and focuses on how she’s changed over a period of 5 years both in her work and mind as she becomes a photographer and feminist.

“The visual history of women is an incomplete record. If we don’t make a record of our lives it’s as if we didn’t exist.” – Angela Kelly, July 1987