My Masculinity photos were in response to Clare Rae’s work, Never Standing on Two Feet. The inspiration I took was the location, her work was based around the sand dunes and bunkers on several beaches in Jersey. So I went to St. Ouen to take pictures of myself near a bunker and a fallen tree. Her work is still very different to mine but I feel they have the same energy.
My work:
Rae’s Work:
I also made some in black and white to better match Rae’s pictures:
I wanted to recreate Rae’s photos of her with a grey stone background:
(The ones like this)
Which is why I mainly wanted to go and take pictures of me in front of a similar type of wall. I felt mine had more detail with the scratched graffiti behind me:
I think I represented Rae’s photos very well while at the same time producing the photos my way.
I decided to print out smaller versions of my photos and mix and match them to create all kinds of patterns. I did this to imagine and visualize what my final versions of my actual printouts would look like.
I decided to go to St. Ouen’s with my camera and take photos of me wearing a leather jacket. I think they turned out really good. These photos are inspired by Clare Rae’s work.
I want to venture out to the cliffs and beaches of Jersey and take some of my own photos in reminiscence to Clare Rae’s album, “Never standing on two feet”. The places in particular can be West Park, Bonne Nuit, St. Brelade’s Bay, Corbiere, Beauport Beach, St Ouen’s Beach.
Rineke and Nicolai Inspiration:
I want to take photos of whoever two times, one before doing a task and one after doing a task. Similar to Nicolai Howalt’s work when he photographs boxers before and after their fight. I can also just photograph only after their fight, like Rineke Dijkstra’s work. With these photos I want to represent masculinity and what is usually expected from a man. I can do a photo showing what someone looks like before working out in the gym and after. I can do the same but with a person after a street fight or after a war etc..
Claude Cahun (Formally known as Lucy Schwob), was a French photographer, best known for her self portraits and who moved to Jersey in 1937 with her partner and stepsister, Marcel Moore.
She was sentenced to death and had most of her work destroyed in 1944 for opposing the German occupation during World War Two, but she survived and lived until 1954 where she and her partner were both buried in St. Brelade’s churchyard.
Claude Cahun was gender fluid so she was neither male or female and didn’t associate herself with either, her work reflected this as she would exercise this idea:
In this photo she has shaved her head and is wearing overalls, which is typically what a “blue collar” male would wear, the bald head is seen as a masculine feature, which distorts her gender and makes it more complicated. A quote from her when asked about this photo was “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”.
She liked to challenge the norm of gender roles, for example, traditionally women were more seen as objects for male desire so she wanted to make her work not define, but to express and explore her identity, to be free from the dominant ideologies in our society.
Expanding on her photo above, the Technical side of the photo we can talk about is the Lighting. Her face is bright white which clashes with the black background. The Depth of Field appears to be rather short as we can see her quite close to the camera and the background looks like it’s not far behind her either and the Shutter Speed is clearly low as we can see two of her, she must have taken the photo and while the camera’s shutter was still open she moved and changed her position. Which created the effect we see now.
The Visual elements present in this photo are things like the Colour, being a black and white image, the photos two main colours are black and white. The Texture of the background has a sewn material look, which makes me think its a curtain or a piece of cloth pinned to the wall.
Clare Rae:
Clare Rae is an artist and photographer from Melbourne, Australia. She was researching Claude Cahun’s work and wanted to make something similar to it by producing her own album, “Never standing on two feet”:
She explained her work and wrote:
“Like Cahun’s, my photographs depict my body in relation to place; in these instances sites of coastal geography and Jersey’s Neolithic ritual monuments. I enact a visual dialogue between the body and these environments, and test how their photographic histories impact upon contemporary engagements. Cahun used self-portraiture to subvert the dominance of the male gaze in photographic depictions of the female body in the landscape. My practice is invested in the feminist act of self-representation and I draw parallels between my performances of an expanding vocabulary of gesture and Cahun’s overtly performative images of the body expressing a multiplicity of identity. In this series, I tease out the interpretations inherent in landscape photography. I utilise gesture and the performing body to contrast and unsettle traditional representations of the female figure in the landscape.”.
I will analyse this photo:
The Technical aspects seen in this image are the Lighting, the sky is bright but the ground is dark. It almost looks like they are clashing together. The Depth of Field is deep as it stretches down all the way through the bunker, more on the bunker is that the walls seen on both sides create a converging lines effect and even resembles rule of thirds a little.
Some Visual things are the Texture of the grass and moss, they add more detail in the photo and make it more sharp. You can see Lines along the bunker walls, which create more converging lines as they are leading the same way the walls are. Another thing is the Space between the objects seen in the photo, there is a wide gap between the walls at the front and back of the photo, and Rae is seen centred in the middle of the opening.
Rineke Dijkstra:
Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer who makes single portraits of people such as adolescents, clubbers, and soldiers.
These photos show bullfighters and a soldiers. The bullfighters have just fought and killed a bull, hence the blood on them and their torn and roughened up clothes. The soldier has dirt on his face and appears to be in a warzone, given the depressing colours behind him and expression on his face. These photos represent the violent nature and trauma men can go through, whether that be from fighting in wars or killing dangerous animals. Her work is similar to Cahun’s as it’s on gender representation and gender roles, but more for men and what’s expected from most men.
This photos Technical elements are the Depth of Field being close as it is a portrait showing the man’s upper half. The Lighting seems even throughout the image between the man and the background. The Visual elements are the Colours in the image, for example the man’s suits colour is similar to the background and contrasts with the shirt and tie, even with the splattered blood. His suit has a Texture that looks rough and hard, given it’s dried material look. A Conceptual element is story behind how he got the plaster on his neck, given that he is a bullfighter which means he gets involved in rough activity, It makes you wonder if he was perhaps scraped by the bull’s horn as he dodged it when it charged past him, or if he accidentally cut himself with his sword and is luckily still alive. He could’ve gotten a plaster not even from bullfighting, maybe from fighting something or someone else.
Another photographer, Nicolai Howalt makes similar photos but instead with boxers. He often shows a comparison between what they looked like before their fight and after:
Identity politics is a political construct created by and to support people from all kinds of backgrounds, whether that be race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, religion/spirituality, nationality and socioeconomic status. It is important to be understanding and respective of other peoples identities in order for an inclusive and diverse society. It is also interesting to learn about other people’s lifestyles and environments they live in.
Culture Wars:
Culture conflicts can happen between two different groups or parties etc. whether being about race, beliefs or political standpoints and so on. A scenario were we see two different beliefs confront each other is when Grayson Perry goes on a road trip.
Grayson Perry is a “transvestite” artist, known well for his cross dressing and work on identity and culture. When he went on his road trip he meets a group of Trump supporters. Him and the supporters have very different views on things such as identity politics, abortion rights and vaccinations. Fights and debates happen all of the time throughout the world about all kinds of things and there is not much we can do to stop this, the only thing we can do is respect others views and ides on the world and not interfere with them to avoid any kind of conflict.
Gender is a big part of your identity as it can better help someone understand your personality, interests or anything else in general, gender roles are dominant ideologies in our society. For example, it is expected that a man would be strong and tough and would have a job involving more physical and practical activity such as construction or boxing, these would be seen as “masculine” roles. It is expected for a woman to be caring and friendly and do softer work like nursing and cleaning, they would also be interested in fashion and looking good, roles like these would be “feminine”. Even traditionally, the man of the family would be the one to go out and work and the woman would stay home and take care of the children. However, those times are long over and women have the same opportunities as men do now. But the themes of “Masculinity” and “Femininity” do remain in our society, and there are still many differences between men and women. For example, men are still expected to not show emotion or feelings as it’s seen as a sign of weakness. They may not be seen as a man if they show any kinds of sadness or fear etc. and it can be very humiliating for a man to do so. Women are still not always expected to be as capable as a man and to do things as well as a man can, they are still objectified and taken advantage of by others.
I took some photos in the studio and put on different colours over the lights to create new moods and put them in a diamond cameo template, I think they turned out very good.
Double/Multi Exposure:
I lowered the shutter speed on my camera and took photos in the studio. When the camera was taking the shot we would move around to create a blur effect, I think they are very interesting.
Montage:
I took some of the headshot photos and blocked the faces in them by putting a face from another headshot on top of it, I think they turned out decent.
We went into the studio to take some photos making sure only our heads are in the frame and they turned out very good. We also changed the lighting and backdrop to make different moods, feelings etc.
