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.” Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France on October 25, 1894 to a prominent Jewish family, she would later attend the University of Paris, Sorbonne. 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. The artist went on to collaborate with Man Ray, as well as founding the left-wing group Contre Attaque alongside André Breton and Georges Bataille. In the late 1930s, Moore and Cahun moved to Jersey, an island off the coast of Normandy, where they, disguised as non-Jews, they 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. 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.
Cahun shares an interest in certain motifs such as hair, hands, and animal familiars with other female Surrealists, and similarly uses techniques of doubling and reflection to call into question fixed notions of gender and identity.
Cahuns Work
Due to Cahun being non-binary this influenced a lot of their photos due to them featuring some oppositional characteristics of the stereotypical traits of their biological gender, such as shaven hair on a biological female like the image below, due to this it shows that Cahun wanted and did challenge gender performativity.
Cahun inspired may other artists with her work for example in 2017 Gillian Wearing was inspired by her work and almost identically recreated her work, there for Cahun was very influential even after 70 years.
Cahuns photographs she has created throughout her time can be seen as ab-normal and strange as they aren’t your stereotypical portrait photos from that time, they can be seen as scary due to the reflections she uses of a mirror to create two versions of the person in the photo, in many of Cahuns photos the models are wearing what is deemed as odd outfits which adds character and mystery to there photographs.