Photomontage is where you create this new piece of work by (if you are doing it by hand) cutting and sticking different images onto a photo or (if you are doing it digitally) editing different photos on top of anotherto make a whole new image.
some famous photographers who have used photomontage before would be Hannah Höch who was said to be one of the origninal creators of this style, man ray who is well known for his hand photo with eyes in the center and raoul hausmann who was well known for using writen work underneath his images.
Photomonatge is often used to show and express peoples minds and how they think without words and it doesnt always have to make sense or be logical.It was most used and popular during the 1970’s and 80’s during the postmodernist era.
Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women or girls. “she alternated between embracing her femininity and concealing it”.
Masculinity-
maskjʊˈlɪnɪti/ noun
Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men or boys.”handsome, muscled, and driven, he’s a prime example of masculinity”.
Binary Opposition
Examples of binary opposites could be –
Good and bad
Positive and negative
Up and down
Black and white
FEMININITY AND MASCULINITY are seen as ‘Binary Opposites, this is because of the theory that “Man” and “woman” have been opposed as binary oppositional terms since patriarchal society was formed.
Patriarchy relates to denoting a system of society or government controlled by men. Women make up less than a quarter of all professional photographers, this emphasises the true message of femininity and masculinity in photography especially.
Identity can be influenced by multiple factors such as:
Family
Self- expression
Life experiences
Interests
Culture
Ethnicity
Opportunities
However, identity can be PARTICULARLY influenced by the factor of ‘place’. This ties into a feeling that you belong to a particular place. This represents a place in which a person would feel comfortable and ‘at home’, an example of this could be literally at home, this is because a person is seen as having the ability of symbolizing certain qualities of that place.
Gender Identity
Gender identity is known as ‘deeply-held inner feelings’ of whether you’re female or male, both, or neither.
A few different gender identities may consist of…
Male
Female
Transgender
Gender neutral
Non-binary
Cultural Identity
Cultural identities are the different and more distinct identities of people or groups in cultural or subcultural categories and social groups.
A few different cultural identities may consist of…
Sexuality
Gender
Religion
Ethnicity
Social class
Region.
Social Identity
Social identity aims to specify and predict the circumstances under which individuals think of themselves as individuals or as group members. The theory also considers consequences of personal and social identities for individuals.
A few different social identities may consist of…
Race
Ethnicity
Gender
Sex Socioeconomic status
Sexual orientation
Age
Religion/religious beliefs
National origin
Geographical Identity
An individual or group’s sense of attachment to the country, region, city, or village in which they live.
The key characteristics with which a particular country, region, city, or village is associated.
Political Identity
Political identity is a form of social identity marking membership of certain groups that share a common struggle for a certain form of power, this can include identification with multiple political parties.
A few different political identities may consist of…
Nationalism
Inter-ethnic relations
Abstract ideological themes
Loss of Identity
A person without a sense of identity can instead feel a disconnect from who they have been or have no sense as to who they will become next.
A few different examples of a loss of identity may consist of…
Having uncertainty about self image
Gender identity
Values
Long-term goals
Stereotypes
Characteristics that society instinctively attributes to groups of people to classify them.
A few different examples of stereotypes may consist of…
Age
Weight
Occupation
Skin colour
Gender
Prejudices
An unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc.
Masculinity and Femininity are binary opposites as they are similar terms with opposite meanings.
Masculinity definition: qualities or attributes regarded as characteristics in men or boys
Femininity definition: qualities or attributes regarded as characteristics in women or girls
Qualities and attributes that define masculinity and femininity are created in the society we live in and may be seen as stereotypes. Different cultures and societies may define these characteristics differently.
Upbringing can also affect peoples ideas on masculine and feminine attributes as they could have been brought up with the idea that certain behaviours are more masculine or feminine than they really are.
Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, later known as Claude Cahun, was a French born surrealist photographer. Claude Cahun was an artistic name specifically chosen for its genderless associations. Reading the name would not instantly be identified as feminine or masculine. She is best known for her self-portraits. She moved to jersey in 1939 to avoid German captivity as a Jew since at the time it was not yet occupied and she’d assumed it would be safe since she’d come to the island previously on holidays when she was younger. She was sentenced to death in 1944 (after she moved to jersey) during the occupation where the Nazis destroyed much of her work. Fortunately the island was liberated the following year. She survived until her natural death in 1954 suspected to be influenced from her time in German captivity.
In life she did not conform to gender stereotypes, shaving her head and wearing male attire and as early as her teenage age years challenged conventional ideals of beauty. She also never exhibited her photographs and saw herself as a writer which rises question as to the purpose of her photographs.
Claude Cahun stripped back her appearance to a genderless face. She shaved her head removing a stereotypical feminine trait. She wore men’s clothes changing a feminine silhouette to an unidentifiable one. She changed her name to a unisex one to leave behind biases. All of these things are associated with a woman and by removing them she was questioning what truly makes a woman and if without dresses, makeup and long hair would people still see her as one.
This image is of two self-portraits layered together. She has a shaved head, no eyebrows and no makeup for an androgynous appearance. This is a common visual across her work linking to bigger themes she liked to tackle such as gender identity. Without long hair she’s not necessarily quickly seen as a woman which builds the question: What makes a woman?
She is positioned in front of a black background so that all focus is focused onto the faces. Her face is lit with bright lights to fully illuminate the whole thing. The shadows cast by her nose shows the light is coming from that direction which is consistent with the second face to create a full image as opposed to two separate portraits stitched together. I would say that he skin looks extremely pale because the images are slightly overexposed which makes her look ill or ghastly which paired with the two faces creates a surreal or supernatural appearing image.
She utilises tone to achieve a unique appearance to her images. The eye is drawn to the brightest things which in this case is her and is a stark difference to the background. There is no mid-tones present in the image which almost makes her look supernatural or like an apparition.
In my opinion, Cahun’s photographs were a way to explore her identity and what made her the way she is while still exploring and experimenting through the art from. She could portray herself however she wanted with the use of personas and ‘masks’. “Behind this mask another mask, there can be no end to these disguises,” is a quote from the writer herself which I believe supports this idea.
This photograph in particular caught my attention because it stitches two different images together. It is in black and white as it was created before digital and has lower resolution then modern images. She would have had to combine the two during production when she was developing. Claude Cahun is centred with two faces. One with darkened eyes whispering into the others ear. This use of lighting successfully creates a sinister appearance which helps to create a story of intrusive thoughts or the devil on her shoulder whispering into her ear. The turned face is used to act like a physical manifestation of her dark thoughts either internally or a representation of exterior influence although by using her own face it seems more like an internal struggle. The act of whispering has connotations of temptation and an act of evil. The use of a dark, smoky background again helps to the darken the image and create a sinister undertone.
I believe the message of this image is that Claude Cahun is her own demon of sorts. She is the one whispering into her own ear and tempting herself, she isn’t blaming anyone/thing else. In terms of identity this shows the two sides of a coin; the front side and the darker side. She cold be maybe repressing a major side of herself or it could be showing how she is two-faced.
The only differences between the faces is the angle, expression, and amount of light reaching her eyes. This could show a number of things:
That she struggles to differentiate the two faces/ halves of herself as they are so similar.
The two sides are more similar that she would necessarily like to admit or it would seem at a first glance.
The two faces are equal parts of what makes her up.
Only half the second face symbolises she doesn’t fully understand it/she doesn’t see it it for what it is and blames herself. Its purpose is foreign/misunderstood.
I’m aiming to take at least 2-3 photoshoots exploring the themes of identity, masculinity and femininity, I’d also like to incorporate my ideas and inspiration from the photographers I have researched, Claude Cahun and Tsoku Maela, such as some of their dramatic but elegant poses but I would like to add my own style into them so that I’m not just directly copying the artists.
The theme I really want to focus on is identity, however I would also like to explore both femininity and masculinity. I’d like to do this by using poses, makeup and other items to try and challenge stereotypes and gender role. I would also like to include my own views and opinions of society and identity within my work to make it more personal and something I can relate to even more.
I might include a younger model such as my brother to represent modern society and this generation, I want to do this to convey a message that shows how more accepting this generation is when it comes to identity and stereotypes, however there is still some kind of discrimination among society against the ideas of identity. I also want to show how confusing and complicated identity can be for younger people as they start questioning who and what they actually are.
Femininity: The social expectations of being a women. It refers to the qualities or attributes regarded as characteristics of women or girls in a given society.
Masculinity: The social expectations of being a man. It refers to the roles, behaviours and attributes that are considered appropriate for boys and men in a given society.
Summary
Femininity and masculinity are a binary opposite, which means they are relative terms, which mean the opposite. Another example of binary opposites are good vs evil. Binary opposition originated in Saussurean structuralist theory in Linquistics (scientific study of language). According to Ferdinand de Saussure, binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. Using binary opposites can often be very helpful in generating ideas for a photographic project as it provides a framework, which provides a set of boundaries to work within.
Identity Politics
Identity politics is a term used to describe people of a particular race, religion, gender, social background, class or another identifying factor and how they are more or less venerable to oppression. Some social groups are more likely to be oppressed, such as women, ethnic minorities or sexual minorities, because they are seen to have less power or privilege. However, some people are less likely to be oppressed and are more favoured are mainly whites, or men, because they are seen to have more power or privilege.
The term was coined by the Combahee River Collective in 1977. It took on widespread usage in the early 1980s, and in the ensuing decades has been employed in myriad cases with radically different connotations dependent upon the term’s context. It has gained currency with the emergence of social activism, manifesting in various dialogues within the feminist, American civil rights, and LGBT movements, disabled groups, as well as multiple nationalist and postcolonial organizations, eg. Black Lives Matter movement.
Culture Wars
Culture wars are cultural conflicts between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal values is seen.
The term is commonly used to describe contemporary politics in western democracies with issues such as abortion, homosexuality, transgender rights, pornography, multiculturalism, racial viewpoints and other cultural conflicts based on values, morality, and lifestyle being described as the major political cleavage.
In the photograph above it is Grayson Perry, who goes on a Big American Road Trip, where he travels across the US, exploring its biggest fault lines, from race to class and identity, making art as he goes along. He travels to the Midwest to find folks bitterly divided over identity politics and hot issues like abortion and vaccination.
Gender Identity
Gender identity is how a person describes there gender. This is your deeply-held inner feelings as to whether you are a female, male, both or neither.
Cultural Identity
Cultural identity is a part of a person’s identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture.
Social Identity
Social identity refers to people’s self-categorizations in relation to their group memberships (the ‘we’). These categorizations are often assigned to us or something we are born into.
Geographical Identity
An individual or group’s sense of attachment to the country, region, city, or village in which they live. It is also the key characteristics with which a particular country, region, city, or village is associated.
Political Identity
Political identity is a form of social identity marking membership of certain groups that share a common struggle for a certain form of power. This can include identification with a political party, but also positions on specific political issues, nationalism, inter-ethnic relations or more abstract ideological themes.
Lack of/ Loss of identity
The loss of identity can refer to a range of experiences in which an individual feels disconnected from their sense of self, purpose, or values. This can occur due to various factors such as major life changes, trauma, mental health issues, or societal pressures. This can also cause mental health issues for some individuals.
Stereotypes
A stereotype is a widely held, but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. There are many different gender stereotypes that influence femininity and masculinity. Examples:
• Women should be housewives and mothers
• Men should be tough and strong
• Women are too emotional
• Men should souly provide for the women
Prejudice
Prejudice is a favouring or dislike of something without good reason. It is having unfriendly feelings directed against an individual, a group, or a race.
Femininity is generally defined as the attributes, behaviours and characteristics of women or girls. The most prominent example can be seen with the stereotypical traditional association of the colour pink, being highly regarded as a ‘feminine colour’.
(Barbie, 2023 – Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie – actors)
What is the definition of Masculinity?
Like Femininity, Masculinity is generally defined as the attributes, behaviours and characteristics of Men and boys. Using the same example, The colour blue is stereotypically associated to be a ‘masculine colour’.
(Donald Glover – Actor & Musician)
What is the definition of Identity?
Defined as being who or what a person or thing is. Identity can vary with culture, environment, gender, politics, and social aspects. Identities alter in different nations and regions having their own appearances and characteristic’s in their population.
An example cultural identity of this can be seen with Māori people from New Zealand. Being an Indigenous Polynesian population, in mainland New Zealand their identities can shown through their appearances, the most well-known one being their cultural tattoos, called Tā moko.
(With Men, It is more common to see the entire face, tattoo’ed as of tradition)
(With Women, The tattoo is usually on the lips and chin)
These further show examples of environmental identity, taking influence from culture and history with these tribal face tattoos dating back pre-European involvement with New Zealand. Additionally their Customs and traditions are associated with cultural identity. The Haka, a ceremonial dance that consists of vigorous movements of rhythmical foot stamping as well as expressive facial expressions, It is performed for various social functions associated with Māori culture.
Social identity, which is when people self-concept are shown through membership in groups, can be found with influential movements of fashion or behaviour. A notable social group associated to the UK are Roadmen. Dressed in all black, and known for being anti-sociable, they’re social appearance is recognisable for those reasons and can be found in urban areas such as London where large groups socially affiliate with each other territory.
With fashion, social identity can be shown through trends and styles. Styles can define someone’s identity with their appearance acting as a insight to their personality.
Styles such as Normcore, explore the deliberate choice of being unremarkable or unfashionable in casual looking clothes, yet creating a noticeable appearance through style.
Gorpcore, which focuses on wearing functional outdoors wear, is usually associated to clothes such as fleeces, Gore-Tex jackets and hiking trousers. Made popular through social media with Celebs such as Frank Ocean spotted or appearing at events wearing gorpcore brands, like Arc’teryx. This helped it become more popular in High fashion with brands such as Balenciaga getting involved with the style. Therefore leaving a large influence on the fashion influencers who build their identity on how they are dressed.
(Frank Ocean – Musician)
(A$AP Rocky – Musician)
Geographical Identity, which is a groups sense of attachment to their country/region can be shown locally with an example being the Island games. Showing Island recognition for a sporting event, and loyalty to its island through its players, this shows geographical Identity as the island is represented through its population showing their pride.
Identity can also be formed with upbringing, with parents, siblings and relatives playing factors of building personalities. When surrounded by people who you live with, you grow to adapt in your character from aspects of theirs, if you have a parent that shows confident or introverted characteristics, you are more likely to develop those traits. This can also be seen genetically with children being identical to their kids.
For this photo I had a 2 point lighting setup with a honeycomb light lighting the foreground and a snoot light in the background.
I enjoyed the heavy contrast between the two saturated colours so in Lightroom Classic had the temperature decreased for the royal blue and increased the tint for the ruby red and copied the settings to a similar photo.
Finally in photoshop I imported both photos, opacified the second one and dragged the spot heal tool sporadically until I ended up with the eyes. To achieve the aquamarine highlight I simply increased the overall exposure.
This is a simple setup with one key light. I added a gaussian blur to the primary layer to smooth out the subject.
On the secondary layer I positioned a similar image in the same place with a motion blur then copied and cropped the eyes from the layer and added to it additional motion blur for this dreamlike look.
(This last photo had to be downsized to fit the upload limit)
Like the previous image I added a gaussian blur and spot healing to smooth out the subjects face in both images.
I tried to make the red highlight more subtle so opacified that layer. This works out quite well as the opaque layer is directly staring into the camera
Inspiration
Overall these edits take inspiration from the work I’ve seen from Jonti Wild.
The stark neon colours and use of blur gives his images a new type of depth I want to add into my own portfolio.
Identity is the characteristics that determine who or what you are. It is how you define who you are and also how others define you. When you figure out your identity you can form strong, meaningful connections with others and also helps you to communicate with people. It is important to recognise how you identify to be able to love yourself and to be confident and learn to accept who you are.
Social Identity
The 8 social identities are :
Ability
Age
Ethnicity
Gender
Race
Religion
Sexual Orientation
Socioeconomic status
Social identity is how people categorize themselves into a social group and how the perceive themselves in relation to society and the options of different social groups. Social identity influences how people see themselves and how they interact with others.
Cultural Identity
Cultural identity is the distinct identities of people or groups in cultural or subcultural categories and social groups. It gives people identification with a sense of belonging with a certain group of people based on the different cultural categories including nationality, ethnicity, race, gender and religion. People express their cultural identity through clothes, food, festivals, music and art.
Geographical Identity
Geographical identity is when a person or group of people feel a sense of attachment to a country, region or the village in which they live in.
Identity politics
Identity politics is a form of art that focuses on exploring the concept of identity. It is almost always personal and allows them to express their experiences, emotions and beliefs. It can also be a way to explore different social and cultural issues that relate to :
Race
Religion
Gender
Sexual Orientation
Social background
Caste
Social class
Culture Wars
Culture wars are a type of cultural conflict between two or more social groups who struggle to politically express their feelings or what they believe in. In 1980s culture wars flared up and there was a rising movement of conversations that American society had lost its way. The main problem of these culture wars was there was a decline of cultural and moral values instead of economic or political issues.
Identity Art:
An early example of identity in art is Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits who wanted to express her Mexican culture through art as well as the larger social and cultural issues. Her work challenged the traditional of woman in art which she created the idea that woman are portrayed as passive and decorative objects.
This is one of Frida Kahlo’s Artwork.
Identity art evolved throughout the 20th century and we saw Cindy Sherman use gender roles and stereotypes of men and woman and how they are portrayed so differently.
Cindy Sherman is an American artist who created self-portraits in different contexts to portray the different stereotypes of woman. She was extremely interested in experimenting in different identities. She would create different images with props that she has deliberately chosen to resembles movie characters. She continued to create different photographs to show the diversity of different people and different human stereotypes.
The 20th and 21st centuries have been seen for artists and photographers to use political identity to portray there authentic life. Political identity is a huge part of our life today as we see it everywhere, whether its through artwork or other ways. This is beneficial for them to express their feelings of their identity to
gender identity / cultural identity / social identity / geographical identity / political identity / lack of / loss of identity / stereotypes / prejudices etc.
