Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality and looks that make a person. A psychological identity relates to self-image, self-esteem, and individuality. Some aspects of peoples personal identity includes their skin colour, ethnicity, religion, which all play an important part in that person’s life because it’s how they view the world around them and themselves.

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Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist’s self-portrait from 1928 epitomizes her attitude and style, as she stares defiantly at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine. “Under this mask, another mask,” the artist famously said. “I will never be finished removing all these faces.”

Her first recorded self-portraits are dated as early as 1912 when the artist was about 18. In the early 1920s, she would change her name to the gender-neutral Claude Cahun, which would be the third and last time the artist changed her name. Along with step-sister and lover Marcel Moor, she moved to Paris and fell into the milieu of the Surrealist art scene. 

In the late 1930s, Moore and Cahun moved to Jersey, an island off the coast of Normandy, where they, disguised as non-Jews, produced and distributed anti-Nazi propaganda. After being caught, imprisoned, and sentenced to death, they successfully escaped such a fate when Jersey was liberated by allies in 1945.

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Cahun is considered to be a ground-breaking artist who fully embraced her gender fluidity long before the term came into use. Tragically, she never fully recovered from her maltreatment in prison and passed away on December 8, 1954, in Jersey, United Kingdom. Her work left a huge impression on photography and directly influenced contemporary photographers Cindy Sherman, Gillian Wearing and Nan Goldin. 

Gender Identity

Gender identity is your deeply-held inner feelings of whether you’re female or male, both, or neither. Gender identity may be the same as the sex you were assigned at birth (cisgender) or not (transgender). This concept is intimately related to the concept of gender role, which is defined as the outward manifestations of personality that reflect the gender identity.

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