I have collected many different variety of photos which I think would inspire my femininity photoshoot. It has a lot of different views of femininity, for example it shows femininity from both male and
here is my mood board that I have created with the photos I took that was inspired by the collage above. I decided to edit my photos to black and white as it has a more dramatic effect and makes the details and the outline of the body stand out more. I think this looks better as the photo shows emotion.
For this virtual gallery I used my images from my environmental portraits project and my studio lighting project. I have edited some of them previously on Lightroom classic and photoshop. I have then opened them up on www.artsteps.com, and chosen my gallery that I wished to use. For these images I chose to use the contemporary venue as you can see in my first print screen. I then clicked add and place as you can see in the second print screen that I have added in. I began to add my images into the gallery and I paired them with one that went well together, for example[le I put some of the studio lighting ones together and did the same with two of the environmental portrait images. I like how my gallery has turned out as I think that as my images are all quite dark, they contrast with the pure white background very well to make them stand out. However, if I were to redo my gallery I would make sure that my imager were bigger before adding them into the gallery as they are very small and could use the space better if they were larger. I also think they if they were bigger it would mean that the viewers would be able to see the detail more clearly as well as the different tones and depth that they each have. Overall I think that my gallery has worked out well but it could have been better if they images were bigger.
inspired by Sian Davey’s ‘The Garden’ I wanted the images to be warm and light. I turned up saturation to create more vibrant images and fixed the over exposure.
Adjusted Colour grading to create blue deeper shadows to mimic the darker tones in Davey’s work.
References to Tom Hunters work
Thomas Francis Dicksee, Miranda, 1895Charles Edward Perugini – Pandoras box
Born as Lucy Schwob in 1894 Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer. Her work plays with gender stereotypes as she is most well now for her androgynous look that challenged strict gender roles at the time shaving her head and dressing in mens attire. In writing Cahun refers to herself as ‘elle’ or she, when asked she described herself as gender fluid.
“Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” – Cahun’s autobiography ‘Disavowals’
Best known for her self portraiture, in the 1920s Cahun produced a number of images in various personas such as body builder, doll, vampire, aviator, angel and Japanese puppet. She often pulled inspiration from theatre and writing creating complex highly posed tableauxs. Cahun used her work to explore herself and the space in between the binarys of male and female and how she could fluctuate to create art and criticize the societal standards to be one or other.
In 1937 feeling trapped by the political climate in Paris Cahun and her partner Marcel Moore moved to Jersey. During the German occupation of Jersey and the channel islands they became resistance workers and propagandists. Both Moore and Cahun were heavily anti war and worked on producing anti Nazi flyers out of translated BBC reports pasted together often with inks and tonal paper to create poems and criticisms of their regime, they signed them off “der Soldat ohne Namen” (the soldier with no name). In 1944 they were convicted and sentenced to death for undermining the German forces. Their property was seized along with much of both Cahun and Moore’s artwork. They were kept in St Helier prison only released after the islands liberation in may of 1945.
Cahun later died in 1954 it wasn’t until almost 40 years later that her work was recognised she expressed only making work for herself and not wanting to be famous throughout her life she. Claude Cahun is an inspiration for many contemporary artists such Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and Gillian Wearing a British contemporary photographer .
‘Me as Cahun’ – by Gillian Wearing – 2017
Both Wearing and Cahun share a fascination with the self-portrait to explore themes around identity and gender, which is often played out through performance. In this photo she shoots in black and white, recreates the iconic make up on Cahun’s ‘bodybuilder’ and stares straight at the camera taking the most iconic parts of Cahun’s work. Gillian holds a mask with cut out eyes creating a striking silhouette as it contrasts with the plain black background this is an illusion to Claude Cahun’s ideas of personas and masking of the true self.
“Under this mask, another mask. I will never finish removing all these faces.” – ‘Disavowals‘ Claude Cahun, 1930
image analysis
Cahun uses her persona of body builder as an opposition to gender norms, the writing on her body “I AM IN TRAINING DON’T KISS ME” could be a elusion and defiance to the objectification of women this time applied to a male character. The black and white imagine is striking as the contrast between Cahun’s body and the plain black background makes her standout and the details like to hearts on her face and thigh noticeable. The lighting is stark and straight forward with a simple composition making the viewer only focus on Cahun herself.
Emotional Reaction – The image is initially uncomfortable with Cahun staring straight at the camera but fasinating as you read and notice more.
For the final photographs I have produced out of the portraiture topic, I have mounted some outcomes on black board , creating a window mount, and some on white foam board.
With the top 3 photographs, I had previously planed to arrange them as a grouped sequence of images. I wanted them to be right next to one another as they are all taken perpendicular, in portrait. Since they were shot one after another, the images look very similar to each other. I had also ensured this with the editing I chose for them. because I essentially chose 2 actual portraits, and one not, I wanted to desperate the portraits with the picture of the landscape and dress. by aligning the images in this sequence I noticed they sort of tell a story. this story could of been interpreted differently is the order of these photographs was different. Regarding having to physically having to do the window mount, it was definitely trickier then a single or even a double window mount. this was because I had to do much more measuring and remember to leave space for the middle, separating space. other then that this window mount was quite successful and I didn’t make any mistakes.
Because this picture wouldn’t fit with any other ones I decided to do a single window mound for it, this makes the photograph feel more professional and the black suits the tones in the shadows of the picture more than if I decided to do it on white foam board.
I firstly stuck the images using spray glue onto a white foam board, then cut them out and using double sided tape, I stuck them onto black board that was previously measured and cut. what I should have done is to measure where exactly I would have to place the images, as when it came to sticking them down I had a hard time figuring out where they needed to be in order for them to be straight and proportional.
With the above image, after sticking it down onto foam board, l had a hard time deciding if l should place it onto a white foam, to create a white boarder or onto black board, for a black frame. Because the image is black and white, any of those would suit it, complimenting the colours in different ways. However the black to me looked much more mature and serious, contrasting with the image itself .
As I haven’t produce a white boarder yet l felt like for this image above it was perfect for it. The tones on the photograph are soft, therefore having a lighter shade around it would fit to the image. I simply stuck the image on foam board, cut it out, and stuck it again onto another white foam board.
For the above image l tried to change something. l coloured in with a black permanent marker the edges around the image, as some spilt to the actual photograph, I created a black line around the image that is visible from the front, from the side, because the foam board has been coloured in black, it blend in with the black board underneath. This dark effect suited the photograph as there are many black and dark tones in the actual photograph.
Lastly I wanted to do something simple and stuck to ordinary foam on black board, this suited the tones and complimented the photograph very well.
My initial idea for this project is to focus mainly on my friends and their experience with beauty standards in society and the insecurities that stem from them. Having spoken to each of them I wanted to create photos where they felt beautiful. I am also inspired by the work of Sian Davey who focuses on group dynamics and also her work ‘the garden’ which often focuses on a single person in nature devoid of any feeling of gender roles and simply focusing on them. I also what to create multi texture photos by painting over the top of them creating an extra layer, inspired by Tom Hunter I also want to try and pose my friends to mimic classic painting of feminine beauty – focusing mainly on Greek myths such as Aphrodite or Pandoras box which explore vanity and identity.
