Shannon O’Donnell
Background: Shannon is a talented individual who completed her A level studies and continued with a passion for photography and in fact has recently completed her BA (Hons), a degree in documentary photography at the university of South Wales. Her age and birth date is unknown as there is no evidence of that type of information.
During her 3-year degree, she developed a number of projects based around gender identities and constructions. Her work is quite known and in fact has a certain uniqueness and depth to it.
Shannon is an amazing artist. She approached her work with a performative approach where she explores the gendered experience which are both personal and within contemporary and historical capitalist Britain. Shannon has a variety of ways she shows her art, she presents her art through things like, audio, text, archival research, moving stills and of course photography. She was the former Digitisation and Outreach Coordinator at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive and current Digitisation and Cataloguing Officer at Jersey Heritage
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Claude Cahun
Background Claude Cahun was born in 25th of October 1894, Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France into a wealthy jewish family. Cahun was incredible, not only was she an artist but she was a photographer and writer. She is best known for her unique self portraits where she creates a range of personas, some include, weight lifter, doll and aviator. Cahun explored and questioned gender, identity and subconscious of mind, particularly position of women. She did this through her art and in the way she spent her life.
Later, in her late teens/early twenties, Cahun had been looking for a gender neutral name. Soon she changed her name to Claude Cahun in 1918.
Claude, soon moved to Jersey Channel Island, with her lover, Marcel Moore and her stepsister. Suddenly she was imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1944, accused of activities in the resistance during the occupations. Luckily, Cahun survived and nearly reached to the point where she was forgotten until in the 1980s where she started to be recognised, once again for her art. Lots of Cahun and her lovers work was destroyed by the Nazis due to them requisitioning their home.
Unfortunately, Cahun died in 1954 from ill health. It was rumoured that her time in captivity in German might have been partially to blame for her death. Later, Cahun lover, Moore killed herself in 1972. Both Cahun and Moore are peacefully buried together in St Brelade’s churchyard.
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