Mood board

About

Claude Cahun, also known as Lucy Schwob, was born October 25th 1894, in Nantes, France. She would later pass on December 8, 1954, in St. Helier, Jersey. Cahun was a French writer, photographer, Surrealist, and performance artist who was largely written out of art history until the late 1980s due to her being an activist during the second world war.

It is thought that Cahun took her first self-portrait at around 1913, a year later publishing her first collaboration with Malherbe under the pseudonyms Claude Corlis and Marcel Moore. They contributed a piece titled “Vues et visions”, or “Views and Visions”, to the literary journal ‘Mercure de France’ with Cahun doing the writing and Moore doing the illistations. Although she had tried out other names, by 1917 she settled on and adopted the pen name Claude Cahun. Moore’s mother and Cahun’s father married in 1917, and the two young women moved in together later becoming lovers.

She is known for her self-portraits that portray her as ambiguously gendered. In taking the gender-neutral forename Claude and by shaving her head, Cahun actively and outwardly rejected social constructions of gender and sexual identity. To Cahun, identity was changeable, or unstable as shown in her self-portraits as she presented herself as a man, a woman and majority of the time androgynously. By fusing several gender stereotypes into a single character, she obfuscated her identity. It is not entirely clear whether Moore was the photographer of Cahun’s “self-portraits” or had some other role in their production. Moore did, in fact, photograph Cahun later on, and those pictures are attributed to her.

Why I chose the artist

While my project isn’t focusing on gender or stereotypes, I do plan to take inspiration from Cahun’s costumes and photography style in order to display a connection between the game and the person i’m photographing. To do this, I would likely have the subject of my photo dress up in a way that represents a certain piece from a game, such as a queen from chess or a joker from cards, and have them side by side.

I am especially fond of Cahun’s mirror photographs as it symbolizes many different things, like how we see ourselves in comparison to how others do. I would also like to try recreating some photos with the idea of reflection in a similar way to Cahun’s photographs.

Cahun links into the the theme of observe, seek and challenge mainly due to her photographs challenging gender stereotypes all while seeking to help spread awareness to the gender inequality many people suffer from. We, as the viewer, are able to observe Cahun’s work and understand the message behind her images.

Image analysis

In my opinion, this is a powerful image that displays an important message. By looking at the clothes, we are able to see a cloak that is embellished in masquerade styled masks, which are typically associated with hiding ones identity. This produces the idea that since there are so many masks that the subject is struggling with their own identity. The cloak itself also helps to strengthen this idea since cloaks are often used to symbolize a disguise of sorts, with the definition literally meaning to cover or conceal.

The photograph itself is also very strong with the patterned curtain behind the subject helping them to stand out and making them the main focus of the image. Additionally, I think that the photo being in black and white helps to enhance the overall aesthetic of the image as we are able to draw out a lot more detail without being distracted by the colour.

Links

https://www.jerseyheritage.org/history/claude-cahun-and-jersey/

For my own interpretation of observe seek and challenge I am wanting to explore femininity and the photographic gaze, more specifically the male and female gaze. I will gaining inspiration from Nancy honey who presents her work through a documentary and portraiture style through the observation of typical female stereotypes. And also Cindy Sherman who uses her work to explore and embody the vulnerability of females and how her work could be feeding into the male gaze.

The definition of female gazes is “a feminist theory term referring to the gaze of the female spectator, character or director of an artistic work, but more than the gender it is an issue of representing women as subjects having agency. As such all genders can create films with a female gaze.” I chose this topic of the male gaze as it fits in with the exam theme of ‘Observe, Seek & Challenge’ as ‘the gaze’ is a form of seeking, and can be a very personal topic to many people.

For this final project, I would like to present my study in a photo book form. As a result of this, I intend to produce many photoshoots so that I will have a large variety of images that I can pick from. This means that, I would roughly need a minimum of 30 final images to create my book. I have plans to begin my study for this project as soon as possible to allow me the most amount of time to compete it.

Below are some mood boars from my two artist references; Nancy Honey and Cindy Sherman of whom I am gaining inspiration from:

PLAN

For this photoshoot I wanted to focus mainly in the kitchen: looking at food, drink, etc. I wanted to try find interesting angles, colours, or shapes to capture and give ordinary things a new look. I first started off looking at different drinks/cups and food/plates before then looking around for other objects in my kitchen. I liked the idea of exploring a range of places and things that we observe each day but take for granted, the small fine details most don’t notice with interesting shapes, colours and textures. I wanted to take in the sounds, sights, and smells of the kitchen, and translate them all into the photo to make them differ from an average photo.

CONTACT SHEET

For this photoshoot, I visited St Catharine’s woods in the evening to shoot the natural scenery at golden hour, focusing on both smaller details and the bigger picture within each photograph I took, showing the structures of different plants and aspects of the ecosystem.

After editing through each image, removing the compositions I didn’t like or felt weren’t interesting enough, I was left with a small collection of photographs that I could further adjust.

For this shoot, I wanted to focus on capturing the earthier, more natural tones in my images, and developing on this in the editing, primarily increasing the saturation of the reds and greens.

For this image, I wanted to bring out the natural blue hues of the light reflecting on the stream without taking away from the scenery around it.

I experimented with the tone curves, increasing the output for the blacks, and slightly adjusting both the temperature and red channels until the stream had a nice blue hue to it, and the rest of the composition had a natural-looking warmth.

When colour grading, I wanted to develop further on what I’d already done, using oranges and blues to strengthen the colour palette, adjusting the vibrance as to not oversaturate the image. After, I calibrated the primary colours within the composition, being careful not to overdo it as to make it look unnatural but not leaving the image too dull.

To add the finishing touches, I used the linear gradient tool to increase the strength of the light source within the image, and to further darken the darker sides, to create a better contrast that wasn’t too obvious. Lastly, I added a slight vignette to bring a stronger focus to the centre of the image.

Female rage has been expressed as an ancestral and inherited response to the struggles, oppressions, and wrongdoings that women have been subjected to. It has also been referred to as being a compilation of the anger that our ancestors were unable to express, that is passed down through generations. It is a very abstract idea and a concept of a specific generational trauma. It is unknown as to whether women are born with this rage or it is developed due to exposure however, feminine rage appears to be prevalent for various women.

Historically, female anger is pathologized as hysteria or madness and can be portrayed as silent and unnerving as well as loud and chaotic.

Women are psychologically conditioned to internalize anger, put on a smile and “just be nice.” Studies published in Psychological Science and Science Daily, among many other organizations, show that male anger is appreciated and respected. In contrast, female anger reduces a woman’s status and puts her capabilities into question. Angry women are often seen or portrayed as overdramatic or irrational with their anger boiled down to two-dimensional stereotypes like the crazy ex-girlfriend, feminazi or the angry Black woman, just to name a few.

Oliver Chanarin photographed his partner Fionna bargess during the lockdown period during the outbreak of Covid-19. His unguarded images of Burgess aim to express the uneasy tranquillity of this period.

However, there were many critics of his work that described his images as a basic. They see his images as invasive in his way of showing a young woman’s body being inspected, scrutinized and photographically from a large variety of angles.

In these images her body is being inspected by the cameras , which unforgivingly presents every detail. Pores, wrinkles, dimples, hairs, every aspect of her body became visible. This very descriptiveness portrays the project as very male, and created to appeal to the male gaze by showing a sexualised and excessive portrayal of the female body.

One viewer said the images ‘speak of the power the man with the camera has, a power the model appears to be willing to submit to.’

Other work:

He also photographed Helen Abelen in the image titled ‘painter’s wife’:

The title, ‘Painter’s Wife’, presents Abelen not as her own person but rather as the property and an accessory to her husband. However many believed this to be problematic and offensive, in the latter half of the 20th Century, as the feminist movements didn’t appreciate the way women were being identified through their husbands.

Cynthia Morris Sherman is an American artist whose work mostly consists of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.

Her work is a visual representation of Sexual desire, domination and the fashioning of self-identity as mass deception.

Sherman’s work is central in the era of intense consumerism and image proliferation at the close of the 20th century.

Film stills:

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills is a photo series made up from over seventy black and white photographs. When thinking about this series, some aspects of her entire body of work immediately come to mind: disguise and theatricality, mystery and voyeurism, melancholy and vulnerability.

Originally she created these images in her apartment, using her own home as setting for the scenes until later expanding to outside for more urban shoots.

Cindy Sherman played with the slipperiness of identity which later continued into her other series. Although she is the subject of the images they are never really self-portraits. She creates different identities so is not showing a portrayal of herself and instead embodies many different characters and identities.

Image analysis:

Untitled Film Still #13 is an image showing Sherman using herself to present the a character in a 60s “coming of age” romance film. She represents the stereotypical young female intellectual on the hunt to discover her womanhood. Experiencing life in the 1970s, during the rise of Feminism, Sherman learnt to see through the popular clichés, shown in film and media, and show them in a satirical and ironic way. Her aim was to make the viewers more aware and conscious of how artificial and intricately constructed “female portraiture” portrayed to society.

Many criticized Sherman’s Film Stills as they believed she was encouraging the stereotypes of women and providing work that satisfies the male gaze through her portrayal of the objectification of women. However many understand Sherman’s ironic approach as being a parody to the female stereotypes and was created to question their prevalence.

Although many believe she is further objectifying herself for the male gaze she previously implied that the project was mostly created for a female audience.

“Even though I’ve never actively thought of my work as feminist or as a political statement, certainly everything in it was drawn from my observations as a woman in this culture. […] That’s certainly something I don’t think men would relate to”.

For my project I have decided to look at the concept of female rage. The definition of female rage is an expression of emotion that comes from experiencing sexism, gender inequality, or any form of injustice directed at women. I chose to look at this topic as not only does it fit with the theme ‘observe, seek and challenge’ it is also something I can understand and relate to. Being a female comes with many challenges and the social inability to expose yourself to emotions such as anger is one of them. A women that displays anger will be viewed as unstable and crazy whereas it is acceptable for a man. As a female myself, I relate and resonate with this topic and intend to create my own depiction of female rage using my own images and ideas.

For this project I am going to photograph women/girls in staged in situations that I believe depict female rage, whether internalised or obvious. I plan to turn my images into a photobook as I think that will be the most impactful way of displaying them.

Gaze – the way the artist and sitter look at each other, and the way we as viewers look at the person portrayed.

Male gaze – The male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer.

In photography we often find that women are reduced to being just sexual objects that appear as accessories to a larger composition. The classic example of a sexually posed woman next to a product in an advertisement is a good example of how the male gaze functions in photography and society.

‘Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’ – John Berger