Photoshoot 1 Plan

For this first photoshoot I am going to focus on masculinity. I plan to explore the connection between fitness and the image of the male body in my first photoshoot. I will do this by showing men engaging in physical activities and just showing off their body physique. This photoshoot will show things like discipline and dedication to physical fitness which is stereotypically thought to be masculine. This first photoshoot is inspired by Sam Contis.

Sam contis

Sam contis is a American photographer.Sam Contis is well-known for her work that frequently examines issues of identity, geography, and connecting between humans and the natural world. However this photoshoot is influenced by the identity work and here are the images of hers i am inspired by:

photoshoot 2 plan

For photoshoot 2 I will be focusing on femininity. In this photoshoot I will aim to focus on the features of the feminine face for example a female’s eye, lips, hair and their full face. I will be focusing on these certain aspects of the face because they are aspects of the face which are different to the male’s face. I will also use props like flowers so that the model can hold or put in her hair because flowers are associated with femininity. I will also use different coloured gels like pink and blue to really highlight the model and the theme of femininity.

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman explores femininity by dressing up in many different costumes and wigs and then did many different makeup looks to create these different feminine characters to show the vulnerability of women.

In this image Cindy Sherman is seen posing in front of her mirror with her jacket over her shoulder, this pose shows her being vulnerable as her back is shown through the reflection of the mirror. The colour in this image is in black and white and her black dress is showing her femininity.

The meaning behind Cindy Sherman’s photography is to emphasise the many roles women have and that they have to cook and clean and be a housewife but then women have to be this desirable person for there husbands as well and her photography expresses these many roles that women should have. Cindy Sherman has said herself ‘When I’m shooting, I’m trying to get to a point where I’m basically not recognising myself. That’s often what it’s about.’ The quote suggests that the whole point of her photography was to create these stereotypes that didn’t look like Cindy Sherman at all and looked like a completely different women.

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger does lots of poster type images with slogans and quotes that represent her ideas. Barbara’s images look at femininity and masculinity.

The contrast between the black and white image and the red and white writing makes the slogans stand out on the image so that the writing is clearly presented to the person viewing her work.

The meaning behind Barbara Kruger’s photography was to express the many stereotypes of women and her photography and slogans often exposed women for things that they might of been insecure or conscious of.

Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun’s photography was very surreal and was about very realistic, raw pictures. Claude Cahun’s photos only had her in the images and a lot like Cindy Sherman she dressed up in different clothes that were seen as neither feminine or masculine and did many different makeup looks to create these stereotypes.

The shape of the chair in Claude Cahun’s photo almost makes her look royal and important. The contrast between the shadows and the white top she is wearing makes the stereotype of the woman she is trying to be stand out and become more visible to the person viewing her image.

The meaning behind Claude Cahun’s photography was to explore gender identity and the subconscious mind. The outfits that she took her photos in were designed to be neither feminine nor masculine which made her photography so unique and different because she was exploring being neither gender. Claude Cahun was not originally called Claude Cahun, she used to be called Lucy Schwob this shows that she changed her name to be Claude which can be either a women’s name or a mans name. Claude Cahun’s hair also got shaved off from her being captured by German’s and being put into a concentration camp which makes her not look feminine and explores the idea of her not being feminine or masculine. The quote from Claude Cahuns book from The Gardian says “No, I will follow the wake in the air, the trail on the water, the mirage in the pupil … I wish to hunt myself down, to struggle with myself.” This quote suggests that she wants to go through all the struggles of her career and learn and fail and try again to get to be successful.

Femininity

Masculinity

Claude Cahun

Born: October 25, 1894, Nantes, France

Died: December 8, 1954, Saint Helier

Parents: Mary-Antoinette Courbebaisse

Period: Surrealism

Movies: Magic Mirror, Playing a Part: The Story of Claude Cahun

What pronouns did Claude Cahun use?

There are convincing arguments to be made for both she/her/hers and they/them/theirs; she/her/hers because that is what was used for Cahun when they were alive and used themself; they/them/theirs because of their oft-discussed detachment from being a woman or a man.

What happened to Claude Cahun?

In 1944, Cahun and Moore were arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out, as the island was liberated from German occupation in 1945. However, Cahun’s health never recovered from her treatment in jail, and she died in 1954. Cahun is buried in St Brelade’s Church with partner Moore.

Why is Claude Cahun important?

Claude Cahun was a surrealist, photographer, sculptor, and activist. She is best known for her gender-fluidity in art, and her anti-Nazi resistance. Claude Cahun is not the most well-known name among surrealist artists. This is remarkable because her non-binary perspective gives an original take on surrealism.

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known for her self-portraits in which she assumes a variety of personas, including dandy, weight lifter, aviator, and doll.

In this image, Cahun has shaved her head and is dressed in men’s clothing. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”1 (Claude Cahun, Disavowals, London 2007, p.183)

Evaluation

Claude Cahun was an inspirational photographer, she paved the way for many other female photographers with her rebellious view on life, her not caring what other people say or think allowed for more people to do the same. Cahun is best known for her gender-fluidity with her art, breaking the barriers of normal standards, she was arrested and sentenced to death which was never carried out, this proved how much she genuinely did not care, and proved how no one could ever catch her. She broke out of social norms and didn’t let anyone control her and put her in a box. This was revolutionary, her photos caused so much emotion in people, whether is was anger or sheer confidence for them to break out of their own box

Cindy Sherman

For four decades, Cindy Sherman has probed the construction of identity, playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. Sherman was always interested in experimenting with different identities. As she has explained, “I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character.”¹ Shortly after moving to New York, she produced her Untitled Film Stills (1977–80), in which she put on guises and photographed herself in various settings with deliberately selected props to create scenes that resemble those from mid-20th-century B movies. Started when she was only 23, these images rely on female characters (and caricatures) such as the jaded seductress, the unhappy housewife, the jilted lover, and the vulnerable naif.

What is Cindy Sherman’s message?

In these series and throughout all of her work, Sherman subverts the visual shorthand we use to classify the world around us, drawing attention to the artificiality and ambiguity of these stereotypes and undermining their reliability for understanding a much more complicated reality.

What art movement was Cindy Sherman part of?

Cindy Sherman is a contemporary master of socially critical photography. She is a key figure of the “Pictures Generation,” a loose circle of American artists who came to artistic maturity and critical recognition during the early 1980s, a period notable for the rapid and widespread proliferation of mass media imagery.

What are some fun facts about Cindy Sherman?

She is a founding member of the Guerilla Girls, an all-female activist group that works to promote gender and racial equality in the art world. In 2011, Sherman’s photograph “Untitled #96” sold for $3.89 million at a Christie’s auction, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold by a living artist at the time.

Evaluation

Cindy Sherman took photographs of ‘gender normals’, she didn’t let peoples talk shut her down and she continued to dramatize the ideas that people had about women, showing the sheer stupidity of these ideas. Many people thought she was just a dramatic woman but she made many other women proud and continues to do so, she is a master of socially critical photography, within a period of mass media, when all eyes would have been on her she still had the confidence to portray what she thinks which allowed many other women to relate to her. She did not want women to be undermined anymore.

Comparison

Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman’s photography relates in many ways, Cindy Sherman paved the way for Claude Cahun, they both broke out of the box and wouldn’t allow anyone to undermine them anymore, they were both extremely rebellious with their photography and didn’t let anyone or anything in the world shut them down from doing what they need to do. Cindy Sherman’s photography mainly focuses on the stereotypes of women and how idiotic they are whereas Claude Cahuns photography based on making woman not look ‘feminine’ anymore, showing how feminity isn’t just defined by a bit of makeup, hair and a dress, but it is instead a place of being, a mindset rather than something you are born into. I have chose these two inspiration photographers as my artist evaluation and reference due to their impact on the world of women and feminity.

“One of the most curious spirits of our time”

Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor and writer, born on October 25th 1894. After studying at the University of Paris, Cahun settled in Montparnasse in the early 1920s and began her artistic career. It was in Paris that Cahun adopted the name Claude in 1914, as she was originally born as Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob but began to explore the idea of being gender neutral. They chose this new name because in French is both a male and female name. While Cahun was alive, it is argued that the pronouns used were either she/her or they/them because that is what was used when they were alive and used themselves; they/them because of their often-discussed detachment from being a woman or a man. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative persona.  Moving to Jersey in 1937 with her stepsister and lover, Marcel Moore, she resisted the occupation taking place on our island. During their lives together in Jersey, the women decided to mount an underground resistance campaign following the Nazi’s occupation of the Island in June 1940. The two campaigned against them, provoking them in a risky manner for four years until 1944 when the Gestapo investigated them. Narrowly avoiding a death sentence, the two were freed from prison on the 9th of May 1945 following Jersey’s Liberation. Remaining on the island until 1953, Cahun suffered from ill health which unfortunately resulted her passing in hospital on the 8th of December. After this, Moore continued to live on in Jersey for many more years until sadly ending her own life.

Her life was a representation of resistance, defying the conventional ideas of beauty and femininity with her shaved head and male attire, challenging them. This was almost revolutionary in the 1930’s, being in a same-sex relationship and exploring her identity in a difficult time period of traditional values. Whilst Cahun was alive, they produced many pieces of work which The Jersey Heritage Trust collection represents. Their work challenged the politics of gender and identity, alongside the work of many male Surrealists who depicted women as objects of male desire. They used domestic settings such as a cupboard at home and introduced something interesting and new to this environment, exploring gender fluidity.

Image analysis:

For example, in this image Claude Cahun is representing the masculine stereotype, which I can see from their shaved head and dressed in a suit, giving the image a monotone look. This contrasts well from some of their other photographs because they have also been seen wearing makeup, portraying a more feminine side. I believe Cahun’s work is important in todays society because it breaks down the idea that females must be feminine or males should be masculine. Being a vision of gender fluidity and breaking down the gender roles that were traditionally assigned.

Mood Board:

DEFINITION AND UNDERSTANDING

Identity politics is politics based on a particular identity, such as race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, caste, social class or other identifying factor form exclusive socio-political alliances, moving away from broad-based, coalitional politics to support and follow political movements that share a particular identifying quality with them. Its aim is to support and centre the concerns, agendas, and projects of particular groups, in accord with specific social and political changes.

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

This can be conceptualised being about the presentation and representation of identities. This is founded in the shared experiences of injustice of members of certain social groups, typically aiming for political freedom (at times wishing minority groups) within a society where they are not able to exist freely, attempting to make others understand what it is like for them in a day-to-day life.

The second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of large-scale political movements—second wave feminism, Black Civil Rights in the U.S., gay and lesbian liberation, and the American Indian movements. Identity politics is greatly connected to the idea that some social groups are oppressed which can lead to stereotyping, violence, appropriation of identities or even erasure of them. The term was coined by the Combahee River Collective in 1977 and gained use in the 1980s, gaining 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, for example: Black Lives Matter movement.

What was the original structure of the Black Lives Matter movement?

For example, in more recent years, the Black Lives Matter movement gained immense news coverage of people of all identity speaking up on the injustice that this group of people face within a society. 

Black Lives Matter started in 2013 as a messaging campaign. In response to the 2012 acquittal of George Zimmerman for shooting and killing Black teenager Trayvon Martin, three activists – Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors – protested the verdict on social media, along with many others. Cullors came up with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, which gained widespread use on social media and in street protests.

Over the next several years – as Black Lives Matter flags, hashtags and signs became common features of local, national and even international protests in support of Black lives – this messaging campaign became a decentralized social movement to demand accountability for police killings and other brutality against Black people.

It became nationally recognised for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two more African Americans, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, being only some of the protested names of people who died at the hands of racial violence by the police. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 US election. 

Women also wear red lipstick to symbolize the women’s right movement. Red lip colour gained popularity internationally as women’s rights movements spread worldwide. As red lipstick symbolized American suffrage, its sway travelled across the pond and then some. British suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst donned a red lip, which helped spread the symbolic action among her fellow activists. Red lips can also be viewed as sensual and devious. Pin-up models in the early 1900s often wore red lipstick, and this look became synonymous with femininity and sexiness, allowing women to feel comfortable in their sexuality. women’s rights movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and ’70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women. It coincided with and is recognized as part of the “second wave” of feminism. Feminist movement in Western society. Feminism in the United States, Canada, and a number of countries in Western Europe has been divided by scholars into three waves: first, second and third-wave feminism. Recent (early 2010s) research suggests there may be a fourth wave characterized, in part, by new media platforms. Women often feel misogyny and feel as if they cannot take part in a job they like as it is seen to be ‘masculine’ still in the 21st century. However, there is beginning to see a difference.

Femininity Mood board

Masculinity Mood board

Mood Board: Femininity

Mood Board: Masculinity

Socially acceptable activities for men and women

• Biological differences between men and women
• Power
• Stereotypes – women are stereotyped to be gentle, nurturing and loving. Men are stereotyped to be tough, assertive and protective
• Gender expression
• Rights
• Discrimination
• Orientation

What is Femininity

Femininity is mainly associated with women and girls. and there is some evidence that some behaviours considered feminine are influenced by both cultural factors and biological factors. Femininity can be influenced by places, society and family etc.

The term ‘femininity’ has been adapted over time, for example in the 20th century women were expected to be:

• Passive
• Sensitive
• Emotional
• Gentle
• Caring

Women were often valued for how they looked and not what they did. Looks and behaviours contribute to being feminine like having softer features, long hair and a smaller frame and curves. While these are all stereotypical ideas, women have and continue to move forward in the world.

These photos show the evolution of what is perceived as femininity and women throughout the last century

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000

2010

2020

Nowadays, women can be and feel like whatever and whoever they want to be as the world is a much more open place.

This is stereotypically how femininity can be shown but lots of women feel as if they do not fit into the category of being stereotypically “feminine”. This means that women who don’t feel like they fit into being feminine, can be transgender and feel comfortable and more belonging as a male.

What is Masculinity

Masculinity is mainly associated with men and boys. and there is evidence that some behaviours considered masculine are influenced by both cultural factors and biological factors. Masculinity can also be influenced by places, society and family.

Masculinity can be described as:

• Strength
• Courage
• Independence
• Leadership
• Assertiveness

A patriarchal perspective sees men as rational and normality. In the 20th century men were seen as the “household heads” where they would provide and care for their family and home. The looks and behaviours of a stereotypical male would be wider faces, broader and prominent features and more facial and body hair.

These photos show the evolution of how masculinity is perceived throughout the last century

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Binary Opposites

A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Some examples would be:

• Positive V Negative
• Male V Female
• Good V Bad
• Young V old
• Strong V Weak

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.

Gender Identity

Gender identity is your sense of whether you are a man, woman, nonbinary, gender fluid or a combination of one or more of these identities. It’s part of your sense of self. It’s how you understand who you are and how you interact with others.