WHO WAS CLAUDE CAHUN?

Born October 25, 1894, Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob was a French surrealist photographer who explored gender identity and expression through their work. After attending the University of Paris, Sorbonne, she started creating self portraits in 1912 when she was 18 years old. In the early 1920s, she switched to the gender neutral name Claude Cahun after previously changing their name three times. She moved to Jersey in the late 1930s where her and her step-sister/lover disguised as non-Jews while producing anti-Nazi propaganda. Her work was lost and forgotten after World War two but we rediscovered and brought to popularity in the 1990s.

 “Under this mask, another mask, I will never be finished removing all these faces.” 

– Claude Cahun

She cut her hair very short around 1915 and started taking photos of herself on a neutral background dressed either as a sailor, a sportsman, or in men’s suit, this was the start of her photography of her self identity. Claude Cahun loved repeated patterns and often used doubling and reflection to question and explore gender or identity. She also loved self portraits and being able to show off her different personalities and identities through her photography.

“You could call her transgressive or you could call her a cross dressing Man Ray with surrealist tendencies.”

– David Bowie (2007)