Who is Claude Cahun?

(Claude Cahun photographed her conceptions of what Masculinity and Femininity looked like).

Born as Lucy Schwob, Claude Cahun was a French photographer, writer and sculptor. Known for her exploration into questioning her Identity, she holds a strong title in being one of the early explorers of Gender Fluidity, decades before its modern prominence today. Changing her name to become more androgynous, she wanted to explore her identity of being non-gender specific.

Born on October 25th 1894 in Nantes France, she would later evacuate to Jersey in 1937, when the looming threat of Nazi Germany would soon erupt 2 years later in 1939 when they began their invasion European nations. When the war eventually met Jersey with the occupation of the channel Islands, Claude Cahun and many others had to endure hardship and struggle due to their heritage. Coming from Jewish decent, she was forced to hide her religion with her ability to speak German.

(German soldier overlooking Corbiere’s lighthouse).

Her creative choice with surrealism is also highly prominent to people as due to the suppression of abstract art under the Nazis, her photographs exploring gender and identity can be seen as a rare act of creative resistance to the Nazis ideology of a conformed race where everyone looks the same.

Cahun photographed herself in self portraits in numerous outfits to explore her variety of Identities. This was because she enjoyed capturing the surrealist nature of how Femininity, Masculinity and identity can be explored, altered and challenged. This can be seen with the example image below where Cahun, for a first time viewer is hard to distinguish from male to female.

“Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”

Who Is Cindy Sherman?

(Cindy Sherman photographed her ideas on female stereotypes , through a variety of characters similar to Cahun).

Born in 1954, in the United States, Cindy Sherman is a Photographer known for her feminine characters and their identities she created to examine the how identity is constructed. Playing every role in the photoshoot – photographer, model, make-up artist, hairdresser and stylist.

Spanning over 4 decades, she took multiple photoshoots of her exploration into how the feminine identity is represented. Her most famous one was her untitled film stills, taken in 1977-80 she created photographs of her exploring herself in various settings resembling that of mid 20th Century B movies. Some of these include the jaded seductress, the unhappy housewife, the jilted lover and others.

“I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character”.