For this photoshoot, I had chosen a few scenarios/professions that I wanted to imitate and photograph, mainly focusing on male dominated professions in order to contrast the femininity of my first shoot whilst still leaning into certain themes – such as nurture – to poke fun at some stereotypes/behaviours. I decided to focus on 3 professions: boxers, mechanics and rockstars as they all differ from one another and I thought I could use different props and expressions to create interesting photographs around the topic of gender stereotypes.

Contact Sheets:

Throughout this photoshoot, I was focusing more on embracing each profession and using makeup & props to help me look the part rather than exaggerating like I did in my previous shoot. I did this in order to get a more natural set of images, trying to reference how there are many stereotypes that make it difficult for women/feminine presenting people to succeed in male dominated professions without dealing with prejudices. I tried using composition to get this point across, often getting my face either not in frame or cut off to show how often women can get ignored or cast aside within certain professions despite having the correct skills.

As I went through the shoot, I found myself being the most inspired by the mechanic portion of the shoot, finding different props which I feel helped to elevate my photos to look the best they could compared to the boxer and rockstar set of images where I felt limited in what I could do. I feel as though I will need to revisit parts of this photoshoot in order to improve upon some of these images in terms of lighting and composition – possibly going back to the idea of using bold makeup to exaggerate/elevate the poses to ensure I get the most out of my ideas.

Some contact sheets:

Best Shots:

Overall, I think most of this photoshoot was successful as I managed to create a set of images that I feel add onto my first photoshoot and topic.

Reflecting back on this photoshoot, I feel as though I could retake some of the images in order to make some more interesting/more relevant to my topic as I think I started moving away from my topic/aim towards the end of the shoot. Despite that, I really like the final images from this shoot as they all have different compositions, stopping them from looking too similar from one another regardless of the focus being the same subject.

Comparing my Work to Claude Cahun’s:

I feel as though my images have some similarities to some of Claude Cahun’s work due to the posing and overall aesthetic of my images. I was inspired by Cahun’s more casual work for this shoot, trying to achieve the same laid-back atmosphere that they created within their work. I feel as though I managed to use a nonchalant pose that mimics the mood that’s portrayed in some of their work, making the masculine nature of the posing/clothing seem more unisex. I turned my image black and white – not only to match Cahun’s work – but to enhance the different tones within the image, helping the different parts of my image come together as one rather than having colour as a distracting factor.

However, my work does differ from Cahun’s in certain aspects such as the composition. Their image is taken from a distance, using their surroundings as a way to accentuate their image [i.e: using the mirrors reflection] whereas I decided to keep my image close to eliminate any distracting factors, trying to focus on my face and the expression which changes how the image is being viewed as the eye is being guided to my face with no room to look at anything else.