Identity politics:

Identity politics is a political approach where people of a particular gender, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these identities. This can have some positive impacts on society such as allowing people to express themselves freely and making individuals feel apart of a society. However, there’s also backlash such as ‘culture wars’ which result from a divide in communities.

Culture Wars:

A culture war is when conflict between groups, especially liberal and conservative groups, have different cultural views and, beliefs and philosophies.

When looking at culture wars, it can be argued that it can cause more conflict and negative behaviour towards the groups affected rather than solving the issue. You could potentially see a bigger divide in the community, or everyone will come together to fight for what they think is right. Culture wars allow less represented communities to express their thoughts and views without being ignored.

A recent example is the debate over abortion law in America which has caused conflict but at the same time, bought the female community together to fight against the government for their rights. However, it has also caused people to get violent and aggressive with the divide in opinions.

Artists and photographers use art express themselves which can include showing the audience their political views. Social media has played a massive role in spreading awareness of the issues in the world through images being shared that ‘front line’ photographers have taken to show the world what is really happening. An earlier example of this is the the Dadaism movement, which is a reaction to the violence to World War 1.

Femininity vs Masculinity

The themes of femininity and masculinity are binary opposite, meaning they are a pair of related terms that have the opposite meaning. When contrasting femininity and masculinity it can create final piece that are left open for the audience to interpret it how they wish.

When exploring what it is to be feminine or masculine there are stereotypical characteristics that make you feminine or masculine , according to society.

Stereotypical mood boards:

The historical views on what it is to be feminine and masculine have changed, and still are changing as society is becoming more acceptable and individuals are being given more freedom to express themselves. However there are still stereotypical views on how feminine and masculine people should act and behave.

There are so called ‘standards’ in society that both women and men should meet, based on their gender. Society expects women to look at certain way; have long hair, be small, dress ‘feminine’ so, they ‘fit in.’ This stereotypical view on women has lead to us living in a patriarchal society where women are seen as subordinate to men, resulting in women having to fight for their rights. This has caused barriers for females are they are prevented from doing certain jobs, playing ‘manly’ sport and wearing that is typically known as masculine. This can been see in everyday life as historically and stereotypically males dominate the jobs that are hard labour. There is an expectation for females to dress up and wear dresses and skirts and present themselves in an orderly manner, not getting dirty or wearing masculine clothing (eg. suits). Through out the years there has been an increase in females wearing suits which can be seen when celebrities go to red carpet events. This links back to Claude Cahun

On the other hand, society portray men as the polar opposite to women and have expectations of them to look ‘manly’, by having short hair, a strong build and dress in a way society would consider acceptable for a man. There is an expectation for males to be strong and show no emotions, which is having a drastic effect on their mental health. This shows us how society views women as weaker than mean because they’re allowed to express how they feel and show their emotions. We are now seeing an breakthrough in males (especially celebrities) braking down the stereotypes of what is is to be masculine by doing photoshoots with big companies wearing more ‘feminine’ outfits such as dresses and skirts.

There are many artists who have explored and experimented with the themes of femininity and masculinity such as Claude Cahun and Frida Kahlo. They both went against the stereotypical norms of how feminine people should appear as they are both pictured with short hair and wearing clothing that society would associate with males.

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob was a French photographer who is best known for their self portraits where they displayed many different varieties of persona.

Frida Kahol was a Mexican painter who took up painting after she was involved in a bus accident. She is most famous for her self-portrait with short hair, seen above, in 1940. Karlo’s work was based on all of the struggles she has had to face in her life and was almost a way of rebelling. Frida Karlo’s story

Claude Cahun was also, amongst changing the views gender stereotypes. Cahun, who was born as Lucy Schwob is best known for their self portraits. Cahun’s self-portraits, portrayed them in many ways, breaking down the stereotypes of how females and feminine people should look.

Justine Kurland is a contemporary American photographer. Best known for her large-scale C-prints of rural landscapes inhabited by nude women, Kurland’s surreal images evoke pagan utopias or post-apocalyptic or pre-industrial worlds.

Her work often depicts communes in rural America as her subject matter, inspired by 19th-century idyllic English landscape painting, children’s fairy tales, and Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs, among others sources.

-Girl Pictures

I am personally interested in her ‘girl pictures’ work. Justine Kurland’s take on the classic American tale of the runaway takes us on a wild ride of freedom, memorializing the fleeting moments of adolescence and its fearless protagonists. She captures pictures of girls in woodland environments, running around, talking, lying down, sitting in trees ect.

Adventure stories were a source of inspiration for this project. But so many of those narratives center around young boys. The girls in Girl Pictures plagiarize these myths until they become their own, until the original myth is hardly relevant anymore. 

Her work appears to be a mix of images that are staged and natural. Some of the images are real life and Kurland has captured the moment, other girls are models and staged pictures. Kurland bases a lot of her work, especially her ‘girl pictures’ project on her own experiences and memories of when she was a girl.

The focal point of the image is the back of a young girl who is raising her shirt. Instead of her face, we see the eyes of all the girls surrounding her, watching the big reveal. There’s one boy in the group, but his eyes are covered. A girl has wrapped her arms around him from behind and places her fingers over each of his eyes. It’s funny to see such an obvious removal of the male gaze, especially as it’s still present—and yet the delicate hands of a teenage girl prove capable of obstructing it. As viewers we look from his covered eyes to her watchful ones.

The camera stays just far enough away to keep the subjects slightly anonymous. Or perhaps it’s because they are mostly long haired, or white, or wearing similar clothing, or belonging to that vague age range that captures adolescence. Whatever it is, they begin to blend together into one visually unified group of girls. The gang picking flowers in Daisy Chain, 2000, Kurland’s focus is less on individual girls, and more on what happens when they band together.

But of course with freedom comes the threat of danger. So many of the images in ‘girl pictures’ were taken outside in locations that feel desolate or easy to overlook. They are often staged under bridges or beyond fences or on the sides of highways; places that feel synonymous with warnings. The privacy of the overpass is also potent with all the stories we’ve heard of women getting hurt in such places.

They are anything but harmless in photographs like double headed spit monster where two girls pin a boy down and spit on him, the image captured as the weight of saliva still hangs from one girl’s lips. These “Boy Torture” images are especially playful. There’s a sense of revenge inherent in them, like they are removing the boys from this kind of narrative, asserting their roles as protagonists and defying the stereotypes that men are typically more powerful and dominant, instead, showing that women can be aggressive and commanding.

We see worn out overalls holding onto a girl’s body by one strap in The Wall, 2000 and are only vaguely aware of Huck Finn’s similar getup because there’s something new happening here. The girl at the center of this image guides the others, looking past the camera as if it doesn’t even matter, as if the thing worth examining is actually behind us. What’s left after all this repetition of runaway legends and costumes are the common themes: rebellion, self-sufficiency, confidence. A kind of inverse of the American Dream, but with the same carrot on a string: freedom.

‘The images in this book weigh me down with a sense of nostalgia, and it’s not just the late nineties fashion. It’s the fact that the girls seem to be disappearing. Like catching a wild animal in a trap, it feels like by the time you look at each image of these girls you’ve already missed them. They’ve run off to someplace better or just some place that isn’t here.’

I plan on basing my project partially off Justine Kurlands work. I like her style and the way her photos are simple yet have a deeper meaning too them. I think her work relates to the topic of femininity and represents ‘girly’ things in great and different ways, some being quite cliche but powerful.

Femininity

Mood Board:

Mind Map:

Masculinity

Mood Board:

Mind map:

About Milica Marković

Milica Markovic is independent author from Paracin, Serbia. She was born on 26th of March in 1984. The photography she creates is mostly a portrayal of her state of mind, and often these are self-portraits. She specialises in black and white portraits, mostly distorted or obscured in some sort of way.

‘Milica Marković may only photograph herself because she is least ashamed in front of herself, free, relaxed, unrestrained, dark or empty of herself. Shame is condemned by some, while for others it is an expression of the moral, that is, the connection with the divine. She probably wants to surprise herself and like a skilled psychonaut, travels around her innerself. Many have exemplified that the soul, aside from light areas, also has areas of fear, dread, tension, unfulfilled desires and unreasonable passions’.

– Dejan Đorić, art critic

Her Work

Her self- portraits portray her in a very abstract and distorted way, the black and white creating a lot of contrast within the picture as well as creating a more isolated and mysterious environment. They present her as lonely yet beautiful in an eerie, unique way; the multiple exposures and blurred effects adding a sense of timelessness to her photos. She explores her femininity in her pictures, presenting her self as both powerful and delicate.

Image Analysis

This photograph is a multi- exposure, the main area of focus being the profile of Marković, her face showing a clamed, neutral expression with her eyes closed. Another layer can be seen in the image, a similar profile portrait of her being in the top left corner of the photo, yet this time facing the other way, the lips aligning with the forehead of the centred picture.

I found this photograph very inspiring and interesting, the title ‘Nobody loves you like I do‘ having an interesting link with the photo itself. The soothed expression she wears on her face creates a serene and tranquil mood throughout the picture. The composition of the piece is very specific, the second portrait being in a positioned in a way that creates an illusion that she is kissing herself on the forehead, being a portrayal of the commonly- used metaphor ‘no one can love you more than yourself’, as well as being a clear inspiration for the title of her piece. The title is very engrossing, as she is talking to her self, causing this to be a very personal and intimate piece, the closed eyes highlighting how she is being soothed by the kiss. The light background shining through from behind her darkly silhouetted body creates a intense contrast in the image, causing her to stand out even further. The photo includes a wide tonal range, varying from the lightest greys and the darkest areas of black. The second portrait of herself is much more blurred and obscured by the background, causing there to be a ghostly feeling throughout the picture and making the second exposure to seemingly blend in with the background. This causes the centred portrait to be an area of focus, being detailed and clear, her features being the most pronounced thing in the entire photograph. This photo consists of a very shallow depth of field, the entire background being hazy and shadowy, clearly representing that nothing else matters in the photo. Despite the distortion of her face, she still manages to present as feminine within her photos, creating beautiful yet mysterious photos.

Best known as a self-portraitist, Claude Cahun assumed a variety of performative personae. Cahun’s photography work was considered surrealist, however Cahun was also a sculptor and writer. Cahun incorporated a non-binary perspective into her work which gave her an original take on surrealism.

According to Jersey Heritage, Claude Cahun was a pseudonym Lucy Schwob employed in order to become a gender neutral artist. In her writing she consistently referred to herself as “elle” while also claiming that her actual gender is fluid. Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time.

During the 1920s, Cahun produced an astonishing number of self-portraits in various guises such as aviator, dandy, doll, body builder, vamp and vampire, angel, and Japanese puppet.

Image analysis

The photograph itself is in black and white. From first impressions, attention is drawn to the midground where Claude Cahun is. This is due to a number of things, one being her pose. The fact she is in a cupboard raises a number of questions for the audience, while also invoking an emotional response.

Then, there is lots of horizontal lines created from the cupboard as well as corresponding vertical lines which act together as a sort of frame and adds lines of symmetry to the image. There are some objects also placed in the cupboard which aren’t as symmetrical but they are still uniform in the sense that they are horizontal and block shaped. Claude lying in the cupboard contrasts with this symmetry due to her overall body shape as well as how her hand is positioned. Her hand hung down breaks up the vertical lines in the cupboard and emphasises how she is out of place in the setting.

The amount of straight lines in the image creates a sense of uniformity. The way Cahun has position and posed herself communicates a message of being out of place and discomfort.

Erwin Blumenfeld (American/German, 1897–1969) was an influential photographer, best known for his work in the fashion industry in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Berlin, Blumenfeld began photographing at an early age, and in 1913, got an apprenticeship with Sclochauer and Moses.

In 1932 he began photographing his female customers, which were exhibited at a local gallery, and were later featured in the French journal Photographie .He spent three years at the magazine, before becoming a freelancer for American Vogue. Over the next 15 years, his work was published on the covers of renowned publications, such as Life, Flair, and Look. At the same time, he did photography for a Minneapolis-based department store Dayton’s. He also photographed ad campaigns for cosmetic companies, including Helena Rubinstein, L’Oreal, and Elizabeth Arden. By the 1950s, he was thought to be the highest paid photographer in the world. His work has been shown around the world, in the Witkin Gallery in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Rachel Adler Gallery in New York.

My Images

The images below are old ones that I took in school while experimenting with double exposure. I felt that these images go well with Erwin Blumenfeld due to both of pour pictures masking their identity with objects.

Claude Cahun also know as Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob was born 25 October 1894 was a French surrealist photographer Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914, During the early 1920s, she settled in Paris with lifelong partner Suzanne Malherbe who adopted the pseudonym Marcel Moore. The two became step-sisters in 1917 after Cahun’s divorced father and Moore’s widowed mother married, eight years after Cahun and Moore’s artistic and romantic partnership began.

In 1937 Cahun and Moore settled in jersey Following the fall of France and the German occupation of Jersey 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. The couple then dressed up and attended many German military events in Jersey strategically placing their pamphlets in soldier’s pockets, on their chairs, and in cigarette boxes for soldiers to find. Additionally, they inconspicuously crumpled up and threw their fliers into cars and windows.