Juxtaposition in photography is the placement of two photographs close to together to present contrast or similarities. Inspiration could be taken by the pairings of the old monochrome portraits of Henry Mullins and more recent portraits of Michelle Sank which are opposed to show the comparisons, e.g., between the classes (social & professional) in Jersey mid-19^th century & early 21^st century. Juxtaposition can create that interest and contrast in a photograph, it may also try to convey a message from the photographer. It could also create tension and difference.

Juxtaposing images can also be terms of shapes, colours, repetition, object vs portrait.

Contact Sheet for my headshots:

Experimentation with Photoshop:

In terms of Juxtaposition, I took inspiration from my mood board and experimented with different gels and lights in contrast and opposed the different hues in the studio against the subject being photographed.

In the photographs below, I decided to take the title “Juxtaposition” in a different approach and put two photographs in contrast to each other, as shown below. The collages of different emotions and facial reactions can represent a division between one thing and another.

Cahun was well-known for her collaboration with Suzanne Malherbe and was linked to the Surrealist movement in the 1920s and 1930s. They collaborated to produce a body of work that challenged both gender and traditional artistic standards. Claude Cahun is especially well-known for his photography self-portraits. She created a lot of characters for these pictures and explored identity, gender, and the part of self-image in detail. Her work addressed issues of unclear gender and identity flexibility which was unique. The later years of 1900s saw a rethinking of gender and queer studies, which gave Cahun’s life and work new meaning. Her legacy continues to influence current discussions on identity, gender and creative expression. She has been recognised as an inspirational figure in the history of gender identity in art.

In this image Claude Cahun shaved her head and is dressed in mens clothing. This image is very disturbing and has an eerie effect to it, i think this effect is given by the self portrait of her on the right side. The self portrait behind her looks creepy because its eyes are darkened and it is an unusual photo. This photo could suggest that there is more than one person in her body the idea of being two-faced. The aspect of Cahun having her head shaved shows an idea of false identity, almost like she doesnt know who she is, relating to gender in this image you can not really tell if it is a female or a male. The photo is in monochrome and has the main subjects centred within the frame.

Femininity:

Femininity is having qualities or characteristics that are traditionally associated to women or boys. E.g powerful, nurturing and strong

Masculinity:

Masculinity is having qualities or characteristics that are traditionally associated to men or boys. E.g strength, toughness and virility.

How can place, belonging or environment influence identity.

Identity within an individual or community can be hugely effected by the environment they are surround. For an example, if an individual is surrounded by a white supremacist group they will have tendencies to think like them, to think that the white race is superior and should dominate.

Identify can also be effected by they way an individual is brought up. If an individual is brought up surrounded by homophobia, they will probably follow their traits and therefore think that homophobia is okay. However, because of the individual being brought up in an homophobic environment, the individual might feel like they can’t express themselves and have a loss of identity because of their upbringing and fear of rejection.

However, an individual who is brought up with an open minded and non-prejudice parents/family/ group, may find it quite easy to express their gender identity or social identity. This is because they grew up with people who let them have free will and didn’t show any type of judgmental opinions about groups of people or a community.

An individual who grows up with same-sex parents will grow up learning that same-sex marriage/couples is very normal and okay. They will see it as a norm and in fact will see it as something that should be normalised unlike an individual who might’ve grew up in a very straight household that had homophobic and stereotypical tendencies which would imply that they would see same-sex couples as something that is wrong.

Furthermore, there are much more serious cases where environment massively effects identity. North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un massively effects the identity of his citizens. Jong-un made rules that drastically changes the identity of the North Korean citizens. An example of this, is a law where there is only government-approved haircuts. This strips his citizens identifies as they are not allowed to experiment with their hair and express and find themselves through their hair. Doing something with your hair can be a form of expression or change in identity so Jong-un stripping this choice from his citizens, strips their identity. Another law that hugely effects Jong-un’s citizens identity is the fact that they have prison camps. These prison camps are used for people who have allegedly committed political crimes. This men’s that no one in North Korea has freedom of speech and has no say when it comes to commenting about Jung-un’s rules. This form of punishment effects someone’s identity because they are not able to express their thought or opinion due to a heavily controlled system.

Whilst taking my headshots I attempted to also mirror and interpret some of Henry Mullins’ work with angles and positioning when it comes to headshots. Inspiration from Henry Mullins’ models poses helped me to work on my techniques and learn more about how to make my photography look more professional.

I really admire the poses that Henry Mullins’ models would use, such as:

• Looking over the shoulder
• Staring straight at the camera
• Looking to the left
• Looking to the right
• Tilted head left/right
• Looking upwards/downwards/left/right

Catherine Opie(from a vogue article)

Regarded as one of the greatest living documentarians of the American landscape, both sociopolitically and literally, Opie chronicles everything from queer subcultures to urban development, reflecting her interest in gender, identity and community. In 2009, her photographs of Lake Michigan caught the eye of Barack Obama, who had the works mounted on the walls of the White House, where they remained during his presidency.

“I get mistaken for being a ‘sir’ all the time. In Being and Having, I was thinking about my friends and how we performed masculinity and butchness — at the time, a lot of us did drag at a great club in Los Angeles, Club Fuck. In each portrait, I wanted to take [the subject] out of their environment; I shot them against a yellow backdrop and cropped it so you focus on the fake moustaches they’re wearing. At one of my exhibitions, someone confused these people for men. I said, ‘You do realise these are all lesbians wearing fake moustaches?’. I find it interesting that when people see facial hair, they just assume it’s a man. 

I would quite like to recreate her work with some of my own twists to the work, I could use some of my lightening techniques that I learnt to add a better effect to the photo. I would quite like my model to still do similar positions as poise models do, but I would try and get some feminine girls and masculine boys. This would make the artists work very different to mine yet very similar as her work is seen as more focused on masculinity and how every gender can express it, for example she has a theme of bikers, which is stereotypically more known for men. This is where I can add some of my own ideas where I switch it up to juts a feminine stereotype.

Identity is a collection of attributes, beliefs and experiences that shape how we, and other people see ourselves. A person’s identity includes but is not limited to a persons race, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, gender and sexual orientation.

Identity politics is the discussion and political activity around a persons identity. Common groups associated with identity politics and culture wars in the United states Identity politics was Developed after the civil rights movement and include African Americans, Asian Americans, Muslims, Native Americans, Jewish Americans, LGBTQ community and Feminists.

The problem with identity politics now days is it now causes conflict and division instead of being inclusive like it once was. This leads us to the topic of Culture wars.

Culture wars is a cultural conflict betwen different social groups/identities who want to impose their own ideology in society.