Previously known as Lucy Schwob, Claude was a freedom fighter she defied the conventional ideals of beauty and femininity with her Masculine clothes and shaved head.

Her work blurs the gender and behaviours which serves to undermine the stereotypical ideas of gender bias. She lived through the Jersey occupation of WW2 and her work was very influential through those times.

Her work was meant to unsettle the audience’s understanding of photography as a documentation of reality. Her public image has become a commentary which challenges the publics notions of gender and beauty.

Artist analysation –

In this image, there is a clear representation of Claude’s feelings and thoughts for aesthetics. You can see that the models in this photo have quite masculine features showing that they were men but the makeup that is on their face proves Claude’s style of undermining the gender and identity stereotype at the time. The use of feminine men in her work showed how little she cared about the gender bias in the first place.

This photo clearly shows that the models have masks on which clearly states the theme of identity through the idea of covering up how you look. This also shows the theme and style of social identity bias, showing how you may not fit in to society’s norms and needing to change yourself to feel normal and comfortable to b e around others.