Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American Artist, born in 1954, whose work generally consists of self portraits where she photographs herself in a variety of contexts and as different characters. Sherman often portrays herself as stereotypical women in her photographs, resembling scenes from 1950s and 1960s films. Shortly after moving to New York at the age of just 23, Cindy Sherman produced her ‘Untitled Film Stills’ (1977-1980) where she dressed up as imaginary characters in various settings. Some of these characters include the unhappy housewife, the jaded seductress and the jilted lover which are all mainly based off of those from mid 20th century B movies. Cindy Sherman mentioned “I wanted them to seem cheap and trashy, something you’d find in a novelty store and buy for a quarter”. This shows that her images were often taken and made to mimic advertisements and promotions for movies at the time. These film stills remain her best-known works and, once released, they immediately became a point of discussion for feminism, postmodernism and representation. Sherman works in series and most of her work have recurring themes. Additionally, she had an exhibition made for her work in 2012 at the Museum of Modern Art displaying work from throughout her career. Finally, a quote I find interesting from Cindy Sherman is “None of the characters are me. They’re everything but me.” because it explains that in every photo and as every character she dressed up as, she never showed her true self which creates a sense of mystery. This also adds to the sense that women in media are often portrayed as someone else, rather than who they really are, therefore, the things you see in the media are often fake and just for show.

This is one of Cindy Sherman’s photographs where she appears to be dressed up as a house wife. This impression is caused by the fact that she is in a kitchen and appears to be unpacking her food shopping. Due to the photo being monochrome and slightly pixelated, you can tell it was taken on an older camera which also indicates how its inspiration would have come from the time when women were less superior to men. The character she is imitating in the photo, an house wife, almost looks as if she is looking at someone, perhaps her husband, and appears fed up or annoyed. I personally admire this photo because I believe that it definitely tells a story and relates a lot to toxic feminism (the belief that woman have to look and act a certain way, usually doing jobs around the house and looking after her family). Additionally, I find it admiring how Cindy Sherman would set up the camera and photograph herself, instead of someone else, which is something I would like to try for my own photoshoots.

Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob, was a French artist, photographer, surrealist and writer. They were born in 1894 in Nantes, France and died in 1954 in Jersey Channel Islands. Cahun is best known for their self portraits and photo montages where they explored themes of identity. They were associated with the surrealist movement and were an activist who challenged traditional societal norms and gender roles throughout their work. Cahun moved to Jersey in 1937 with their stepsister and lover Marcel Moore. Claude Cahun was later imprisoned and sentenced to death for resistance during the Occupation in 1944. Although Claude Cahun survived, most of their work was destroyed by the Nazis. Cahun’s work is represented within the Jersey Heritage Trust collection and they have become and important figure in the history of queer and feminism art.

This photo of Claude Cahun, in my opinion, is one of her most important photographs that appear to question the societal norms of being female. Not only did she change her name but she also shaved her head to challenge gender roles and express herself for who she is. In this photo, Claude Cahun is presented in a very masculine way, however, there are also hints of femininity which makes you question whether you are looking at a male or female. Either way, she appears confident with who she is by her facial expressions and appearance within the mirror but also slightly constrained with the collar of the jacket hiding herself. This gives off the impression that she feels like she can’t fully show her true identity, the reflection in the mirror. Additionally, this may be highlighted by the fact that her gaze is directly towards the camera but in the mirror she is looking the other way because her true identity can’t be shown to society. I personally admire this photo because it seems to be very thought out and gives off many different impressions, making the viewer really have to think deeply about it.

Comparison

Overall, Cindy Sherman and Claude Cahun’s work relate to each other through the fact that they explore female stereotypes and take selfies rather than photos of someone else, however, Claude Cahun appears to go against these stereotypes where Cindy Sherman tries to oblige to them. Similarly, both the artists explore identity as Cindy Sherman dresses as different characters and never herself but Claude Cahun shows hints of their identity through their characters and appearance.

Both Masculinity and femininity are how you identify and how people recognise you to be. This is shown in your attitude, behaviours, and characteristics, but also in your gender identity. The terms ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ are binary opposite, this means the related terms have opposite in meaning. Some examples of this which I think are interesting concepts are: young vs old, man vs woman, ignorance vs wisdom, and action vs inaction.

Femininity

Femininity is typically associated with girls and women. We perceive them to dress in feminine ways and have typical characteristics, behaviours, and attitudes generally associated with girls and women, such as being nurturing and polite.

Femininity now & then

Femininity today is called modern feminism, and we would associate it with these qualities: independent, strong, confident. Traditional feminism is more focused on women fighting for their rights against men. We would associate them to be a stay at home wife or mother where they would do the cooking, laundry, and looking after children.

Masculinity

Masculinity is attitudes and behaviours that signify maleness, but can also be what we recognise masculine is. Toxic Masculinity is where men have cultural pressures where they think they have to behave in certain ways and show behaviours and traits that are controlling and entitled.

Identity

Identity can be associated by with gender, culture, social, geographical, political, stereotypes and prejudices.

Culture identity is what we recognise to be shared characteristics between a group of people whether that is religion, language, cuisine or social behaviours.

Identity Politics

Gender, age, ethnicity, culture, social groups, are all examples of identity.

Identity politics:

Identity politics is a term that describes politics which is based on a particular identity such as religion, race, gender, social background, class or another identifying factor form. Identity politics aim to eliminate negative behaviours towards particular groups/identities or rectifying injustices suffered by a group of people. Many social issues over the past few years — same-sex marriage, police shootings of unarmed black men, trans people in bathrooms, the fluidity of gender and trigger warnings — are all typically the kinds of issues people mean when they refer to identity politics.

Different political identities:

The groups most commonly associated with identity politics in today’s political environment center on:

• race
• ethnicity
• religion
• gender
• sexual orientation

An interesting reference point in this regard comes from Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign website, on which he listed 19 different identity groups for which he had specific plans. These included:

• tribal nations
• women
• people with disabilities
• Black Americans
• military families
• union members
• rural Americans
• older Americans
• the LBGTQ+ community
• veterans
• the Catholic community
• students/young Americans
• immigrants
• the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community
• the Indian American community
• the Jewish community
• the Muslim American community
• the Latino community
• the Arab American community

Others would point out that White conservatives or political liberals can also constitute political identity groups.

Jersey Identity Politics:

Identity Politics can also be seen in Jersey, through the local identity / language of Jèrriais. Jèrriais is the traditional language of Jersey, which is closely related to French.

It is very important to the locals of Jersey because it is a part of their heritage. Jèrriais used to be Jersey’s first language and was used during the occupation as people could speak Jèrriais without the Germans understanding, this is why it was very important. Jèrriais was used until the 19th century as a first language for the majority of the population of Jersey; even as late as the beginning of the Second World War. The reason for the decline in using this language is due to the fact that Jèrriais was banned in schools just after WW2. “There was a feeling that English was the future. It was socially desirable to bring up English-speaking children. Speaking anything but English marked you out as a peasant. People were made to feel ashamed. They were ridiculed. There was a perception amongst native Jèrriais speakers that this is our language but it’s a thing of the past. And we’ll die with it.” Jèrriais was then called ‘farmers language’ and anyone who used it was called poor or a peasant.

Before the 1960s, the majority of schoolchildren no longer spoke more than a few words as there was no Jèrriais education in schools, and by the 1980s and 90s, the language had almost completely disappeared from everyday use. Since then, a coordinated campaign has been made to bring the language back since it declined. Over the last decade, the development of an education programme has improved, which means all Jersey children can learn the language at school. By teaching Jèrriais to children we can make sure it has a future and stays a language. There are very few parents able to teach their children the language, so it’s important that it’s taught at school. 

Although Jèrriais has slowly become forgotten, and few people use it as an everyday language, there’s still elements of Jèrriais all around the island. For example, it is reflected on street signs all around the island to increase the language’s visibility. This is highly linked to identity politics as people are campaigning to try and bring this language back, to allow people to communicate with a choice of English or Jèrriais. Locals think that having the choice between languages would increase a sense of belonging as an island and bring people closer as they would then have the opportunity to have something in common which is unique and only locals would be able to speak and understand the language fluently.

Culture wars:

Culture wars are types of conflicts between groups that have different cultural ideals and beliefs. The term is commonly used to describe contemporary politics in western democracies with issues such as abortion, homosexuality, transgender rights, racial viewpoints and other cultural conflicts based on peoples views and values. Some people claim that culture wars do not describe real behaviour, or that it describes only the behaviour of a small political elite. Others claim culture war is real and widespread, and even that it is fundamental to explaining Americans’ political behaviour and beliefs.

One example of a culture war is the Black Lives Matter movement, a political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people, and promote anti-racism. This first emerged in the Us in 2013. While the movement spread beyond the US over the following years, what really transformed it into a global phenomenon was the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, in May 2020. An estimated 15 to 26 million people participated in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States after the death of Floyd, making it one of the largest movements in the country’s history. Black Lives Matter protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful; when violence does occur, it is often committed by counter-protesters. Despite this, opponents often try to portray the movement as violent.

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer, born 19th January 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, United States, whose work consists primarily of photos which depict herself in many different contexts and as various different imagined characters. Sherman usually inserts herself into a dialogue about stereotypical portrayals of women in her photographs, which resemble scenes from 1950s and 1960s films.

Sherman has played with the visual and cultural codes of gender and photography. Shortly after moving to New York, she produced her Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) starting when she was 23, where she dressed up as imaginary characters and photographed herself in various settings. These around 70 Film Stills immediately became a point of discussion for feminism, postmodernism, and representation, and still remain Sherman’s best-known works.

The Untitled Film Stills she produced seem to deliberately rely on female characters and caricatures in movies, and she used cinematic conventions to stage these photographs. Sherman was always interested in experimenting with different identities, she explained, “I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.”

Image Analysis

This is a film photo by the photographer Cindy Sherman. There is one subject in this photograph. The focal point is Cindy Sherman by herself in the foreground sitting outside in a light dress on a tree branch and slightly to the right of the middle, which shows me the composition follows the rule of thirds. In this image, the lighting appears to be natural daylight on a cloudy day. The midground and background features a barren desert-like landscape, with occasionally a large rocky structure, stretching far into the distance. No aspects of the photo are overexposed or underexposed, and the contrast appears to be not too strong. The depth of field is sharp so I believe the aperture is f/11, as the background and midground is clear and not blurry. The shutter speed appears to be 1/125, and the image is slightly grainy, so I believe the ISO is around 6400.

Justine Kurland

Justine Kurland was born in Warsaw, New York, in 1969, she holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA in photography from Yale University. She is best known for photographing subjects in American wilderness landscapes, ‘girlhood’ and her strongly narrative work is influenced by nineteenth-century English picturesque landscapes and the utopian ideal as well as genre paintings, the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron and Mathew Brady, and illustrations from fairy tales. Kurland has used staged tableaux to explore the social landscape of girlhood, life on communes, and life in the wilderness. She collaborates with her subjects, who are real people rather than models, in selecting locations and then talks to them about the scenes and scenarios she would like them to respond to and interpret for the camera.
Kurland’s photographs are held in museums including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In this image you can see a friend group of girls hanging out. This imagine represents femininity/girlhood by using the group of girls innocence as a reflection of themselves exploring places, with no worries in the world.

Kayla Varley is a fashion/editorial/advertising photographer working between London, NYC and LA. Having started her career by taking photos at 13 to tap into her emotions. Her work hasn’t strayed far from the captivating emotion filled shots, throughout her career. As she grew up using photography to document her life, it ended up becoming all she wanted to do, resulting in her attending in her moving to LA in 2010 to attend the Art Centre Collage of Design. Her more recent work focuses on fashion but she never strays too far from her roots of capturing the joy and kidlike playfulness of connecting with another person whether that be another person in the shot or the photographer, Varley, herself. I have done additional research on Varley as I love her work and my inspiration stems from a mix of her work and the absurdism movement as well of other photographers work and my own imagination.

Kayla Varley

Analysis of one of Varley’s Photos

This is the photo I picked as it is great example of Varley’s work (beauty) it also has elements within it that I love and want to include in my own work. The cropping of the image is rather unusual as it isn’t centred or following any of the typical rules like the rule of thirds instead it is close to the camera and is an angle that wold normally be considered bad or at the least conventual which it is, however this angle draws the focus to the model and nothing else. While this is a cool shot it is also an advertisement for the eyeshadow so the blank white background, well lit and the fact the only bit in full focus is the eyeshadow is a purposeful move from Varley. However I think it’s a great way of getting peoples attention and still being playful and creative while creating an advertisement. Varley has also made sure the photo is well lit which is how all of her work is, bright, airy and cheery, in fact she has been quoted to say ‘Your dream location to shoot?’ – ‘A giant empty space with tons of light and shadows. It could be anywhere.’ I think this shows in the photo above that unlike many photographers she actually draws complete inspiration and results for the photo from the model in front of her and wants to show the model as a happy character and a person as themselves and not what is around them, influencing them. I love the idea of drawing from a person themselves to portray an idea or a situation from daily life and Varley does this incredibly well in all of her work not just the photo above.

I would love to mix this style of playfulness and unique angles with the style of absurdism . I think they would complement each other very well and will create some strong images for femininity and how different it can look.

Femininity

In general, being “feminine” often encompasses qualities and behaviours that are traditionally associated with women, such as nurturing, empathy, grace, and gentleness. However, it’s important to remember that these traits are not inherently tied to gender, and people of any gender can express these qualities.

Masculinity

Masculinity involves displaying attitudes and behaviours that signify and validate maleness, and involves being recognised in particular ways by other men and women. Masculinity is constructed and defined socially, historically and politically, rather than being biologically driven.

Masculinities and femininities refer to the social roles, behaviours, and meanings prescribed for men and women in any society at any time. Such normative gender ideologies must be distinguished from biological ‘sex’, and must be understood to be plural as there is no single definition for all men and all women. Masculinities and femininities are structured and expressed through other axes of identity such as class, race, ethnicity, age, and sexuality. Thus some definitions are held up as the hegemonic versions, against which others are measured. Gender ideologies are more than properties of individuals; masculinities and femininities are also institutionally organised and elaborated and experienced through interactions.

Identity?

Identity refers to the qualities, characteristics, beliefs and values that define an individual or a group. it is a multidimensional and complex concept that encompasses various aspects of a persons life, such as heir race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, social class, and personal experiences. identity can also be influenced by external factors such as culture, society and interactions with other individuals. It plays a significant role in shaping an individuals sense of self and how they relate to others.

Some factors that influence identity are external, such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or culture. These are classified as core elements. Identity is also influenced by internal factors, such as political, religious, and spiritual beliefs, morals, attitudes, thoughts, and lived experiences.

What can influence identities?

Identity formation and evolution are impacted by a variety of internal and external factors like society, family, loved ones, ethnicity, race, culture, location, opportunities, media, interests, appearance, self-expression and life experiences. The development of individual identities is influenced by societal forces. Therefore, you cannot understand yourself or others without understanding how society constructs or defines characteristics such as gender, sexuality, race, religion, social class, and nationality.

The themes of ‘Femininity and masculinity’ are a binary opposite, which is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.

Social identity is a concept of who you are in public, work or even with your friends. this can be influenced by things people do or say that people see online or even when they are out in public. a popular/trendy identity that has grown in the UK is roadmen. stereotypically roadmen are usually dressed in all black, they are also known for having a postcode war which is a where a group of people feel like they need to defend there area from the other people around them. Social identity can also be shown through what you wear (fashion etc). this can give people an insight on who you are.

Claude Cahun was a spirit of rebellion and defiance. She was a defying conventional ideals of beauty and femininity with a shaven head and male attire, to her direct resistance of German occupying forces.

Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist’s self-portrait from 1928 epitomizes her attitude and style, as she stares defiantly at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine.

In this photo, Cahun deceives the audience because they dress up to look like a masculine man with a heavy weight in their hand, short hair, and male clothes like shorts with shirt. But in reality, the weight is fake, the hair is tied up behind so you can’t see it, so the overall photo deceives us, the audience.

mood board –

Femininity and Masculinity are very stereotypically concreate definitions but the idea of them over the years have morphed into varieties of both together.

Now a ‘days, everyone has different ideas of what those words mean to them. Whether its the stereotypical idea or the mixed idea of be who you want to be, everyone’s view is different.