Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.

Some of Cahun’s portraits feature the artist looking directly into the camera lens at the viewer, head shaved, often revealing only the head/shoulders and also blurring any gender indicators and behaviours. This serves to undermine the stereotypes and ideals of what a person should look like depending on their gender identity.

Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. Born in France, Cahun lived mostly on the island of Jersey with long-term partner, and stepsister, Marcel Moore. They both changed to using gender-neutral pronouns during early adulthood and were previously known as known as Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe. Moore, although not often seen, was always present in being an artist collaborator and Cahun’s personal support. Cahun’s self exploration has been described as relentless and at times unsettling as they use their gender ambiguity and unique looks to create meaning in their art. Tragically in line with the fragmentary nature of Cahun’s outlook, much of the artist’s work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis.

This image above is a very famous piece of their work, continuing along their usual ambiguous and weird style of portraiture. The shaved head and use of framing from the shoulders and upwards allows the artist to not conform to any gender stereotypes or fall within any brackets as they are not showing any stereotypical features of being male or female. In my opinion, the double exposure is a representation of Claude looking back at themselves and potentially trying to understand themselves. The confused expression could be a representation of their struggles with their identity and their journey to becoming comfortable with themselves and who they are.