WHO IS CLARE RAE?
Clare Rae is a photographer which explores feminism through women’s bodies. In her photography she represents women how society views them, and creates art through shapes and shadows that are created.
‘In her photographic practice Clare explores ideas of performance and gesture to interrogate and subvert dominant modes of representation. Her work is informed by feminist theory, and presents an alternate and often awkward experience of subjectivity and the female body, usually the artists’ own.’
MOODBOARD OF HER PHOTOGRAPHY:
RAE PHOTO ANALYSIS:
Rae uses the female body to create messages and art through the way these women present themselves. In this image the women is seen in the centre third, the rule of thirds is defined as a composition guideline that places your subject in the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two thirds more open, however is also slightly leaning to the right due to her balancing on the chair.
Emotional Response:
This image is a creative way to explore the views of femininity and uses all the objects in the frame in order to creates this distorted images. In this image you are able to see a woman is a slightly distorted position, yet she still looks delicate and careful, which reinforces the female stereotype that women are weaker then men.
Visual – what we can see in the image
This image shows that women can be careless and reckless, this is connoted by the threatening position on the chair and how se is using the wall to help balance herself and avoid injury. The natural lighting is shining on the women through the window, which gives a direct light onto her which makes her the focal point of the image, furthermore the dark colours contrast against the white background which lead your eyes through the stance of her body.
Contextual – who, when, where etc…the story, background, impact:
Climbing the Walls and Other Actions is a photographic series primarily concerned with visually representing my experience of femininity, whilst also exploring aspects of representation that relate to feminism. This project by Rae was a way to explore the relationship between body and space and how to use every element within the photograph she is taking. She promotes and takes awkward pictures, in order to create discomfort to obstruct the traditional view of feminisms; this could be a connotation in which how Rae feels about the dominant ideology of feminism and expresses this through her photography.
THEORY:
Gender-as-Performance-Judith-Butler
According to Butler, gender is by no means tied to material bodily facts but is solely and completely a social construction. Judith Butler is an American philosopher and gender studies writer, she is also the author of Gender Trouble.
‘Butler critiques the notion that gender – whatever it is – is stored within the body as if it were something akin to the soul’. Rae supports this idea by showing women defying their stereotypes, and showing them in dangerous and reckless positions. In her project ‘never standing on two feet’ shows that women are adventurous and can do reckless activities, and have qualities are stereotypically found in men.
‘Our genders are not stable but are constructed through repeated actions. Rituals and performative actions constantly reinforce our identities’. Rae shows this through photography that women and men should not have a definite way they should act. However due to change in gender identity, society may feel uncomfortable with this due to the fact that the certain ideas that were put in place are being replaced, and the more people defying the stereotypes the more society will feel the dominant ideology is being challenged.
RESPONSE TO HER IMAGES:
