Claude Cahun (born Lucy Schwob) was a french surrealist photographer whos work generated controversy as it revolved around her gender identity and feminism. She was one of the first to experiment with this and her work was based off her as a person e.g the picture below, ‘I Am In Training, Don’t Kiss Me’ which is arguably one of her most famous works. Cahun’s works combined writing, photography, and theatre. She is most remembered for her highly staged self-portraits and that incorporated the visual aesthetics of surrealism. During the 1920s, Cahun produced an number of self-portraits in various guises such as aviator, dandy, doll, body builder, vamp and vampire, angel, and Japanese puppet.
In early-20th-century France, when society generally considered women to be women and men to be men, Lucy Schwob decided she would rather be called Claude Cahun. It was her way of protesting gender and sexual norms. Some of Cahun’s portraits feature the artist looking directly at the viewer, head shaved, often revealing only head and shoulders (eliminating body from the view), and a blurring of gender indicators and behaviors which serve to undermine the patriarchal gaze.
During the early 1920’s she met In 1937 Cahun and Moore settled in Jersey. Following the fall of France and the German occupation of the Channel Islands. They became active as resistance workers and propagandists. Fervently against war, the two worked extensively in producing anti-German fliers. Many were snippets from English-to-German translations of BBC reports on the Nazis’ crimes and insolence, which were pasted together to create rhythmic poems and harsh criticism. They created many of these messages under the German pseudonym ‘Der Soldat Ohne Namen’, or ‘The Soldier With No Name’, to deceive German soldiers that there was a conspiracy among the occupation troops.
IMAGE ANALYSIS
Claude Cahun’s photographs are captured in an abstract way that makes the viewer look for the deeper meaning behind them. The photo is likely taken indoors, with the lighting being predominantly focused on the models. The dark eye makeup and black background contrasts with the light outfits and headwear. The layout of the photo involves two models, perhaps Claude and a friend or just Cahun by herself with the help of layering techniques. The model in the front is making direct eye contact whilst the one in the back is looking slightly to the left – this makes the viewer more likely to focus on the one in the front, as the eye contact combined with a lighter costume and darker makeup essentially makes you feel more drawn to her.