Ideas

During my review and reflect of all my previous blog posts and topics, I discovered that I much preferred taking pictures of people rather than landscapes, whether that was portraits, tableaux images, or street photography. However, I think portraiture is my biggest strength and what I enjoy the most.

I also found the topic femininity and masculinity a really interesting topic that I found I could write a lot about. I find researching and creating different stereotypes in my photographs the most interesting part, and I really enjoyed making my images fight against these different gender stereotypes. I really enjoyed this topic, because as a women stereotypes is something I hear and see a lot of and I feel like I could do a lot for this topic and write a lot about it, because it is so internal to me and my identity. I also enjoyed how in this topic Claude Cahun for example explored her identity, by becoming a more masculine version of herself and I feel like if I were to do something related to this topic I would also be able to explore my identity.

Inspiration Ideas

For my inspiration I am researching three different female photographers that have fought against stereotypes through their photos and that have explored femininity and their identities. I have decided to research three photographer that I have already looked at previously, so that I already have an idea about what they do, so that I can briefly research them, before I complete my more in depth artist research. I am also not sure at the moment whether I want to do portraits more like Claude Cahun, or create tableaux images, more like Cindy Sherman and Justine Kurland.

Cindy Sherman-

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer, who was born in 1954. She invents personas and tableaux images, that examine the construction of identity and the nature of representation. To create her images, she assumes the multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl, a blonde bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age.

Cindy Sherman experiments with identity and femininity through these images, as she explores all the different female identities that are found within popular cultures and becomes them, so that she can reveal that they are nothing more than an imaginary construct that can be altered through performance. She also show cases the socially desirable female and different ways culture defines a women.

Claude Cahun-

Claude Cahun is a French photographer, that explored stereotypes and fought against them during the 1920’s. Cahun was born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, until she changed her name to Claude Cahun, to make it more gender neutral in 1914. She was also in a relation with a women called Suzanne Malherbe. This was very controversial during this time, because homosexuality was seen as a sin during this time.

In Claude Cahun’s images, she would make herself appear more masculine, by either shaving her head, the poses she did and the outfits she wore etc.

She also explored femininity being a ‘mask,’ because she did not see her true identity as being feminine, but society deemed that that was what was socially acceptable at this time, so she had to wear the ‘mask’ of femininity.

Justine Kurland-

Justine Kurland was born in 1969 and is an American fine art photographer, who took  staged tableaux pictures of landscapes inhabited by young adolescent girls, half-sprites, half juvenile delinquents.

Kurland explains what she wants the viewers to take in from her book (Girl Pictures) and from her images, which is that you too can be anything you dream of in your imagination. She states that they are pirates, cowboys etc, because in ‘Girl Pictures’ these girls aren’t just girls, they are whoever they want to be. She also states that they are trying on ‘boy,’ because in society standards it is more socially acceptable for boys to act in this rambunctious manor, rather than girls. This is due to stereotypes seen through genders. I feel like in this book ‘Girl Pictures’ she is trying to fight against these stereotypes of young girls, and this is an important matter to her and all other girls, because they have grown up being told they should be or behave a certain way due to their gender. She is fighting against these stereotypes, by having these young girls act in a way that is seen as more masculine and not socially acceptable for these girls.

‘Girl Pictures’ is also about finding your identity, because during youth you do not know who you fully are yet and being able to explore every aspect of your youth, even if it does not comply with social ‘norms’ it allows you get the truest sense of your identity possible. Girl Pictures also enabled Justine Kurland to find her true identity.

Final Thoughts

I enjoy how Cindy Sherman show cases female stereotypes, because this is something I would be better at producing, because it is more internal to me, because I am a female. This is a much easier topic for me to do, rather than looking into masculinity for example, because I am not male. However, I don’t think I’d be able to produce up to standard images of myself, like Sherman and Cahun. I also don’t like the idea of having myself or another person dress up in different outfits, because I feel this would take a lot of time and money to prepare.

I enjoy how Claude Cahun fights against female stereotypes in her work and really portrays her identity, no matter how socially unacceptable, but I do not enjoy how masculine her images are, and I feel like I would struggle to create images similar to this, as I do not relate to masculinity in the very strong way that she does.

I enjoy how Justine Kurland’s images are of young girls, because I am myself a young girl, so this is something I really relate to and is internal to me, so I feel like it would be easier for me to gather my friends to create similar images. I also feel like I could produce better images, as the topic of ‘girlhood’ is so much more internal to me, as I am experiencing my girlhood right now. I also like how she also fights against stereotypes, like Cahun, but she does it in a slightly different way, which I feel like I would be able to do and create up to standard images.

For my photoshoot, I am going to use Justine Kurland for my main inspiration, but I am also going to pull from Cindy Sherman and Claude Cahun, so that I am able to create a spectrum of femininity and masculinity, starting with really feminine, like Cindy Sherman, to really masculine like Claude Cahun, with Justine Kurland as the middle ground. This is how I am going to put a twist on my photos, compared to Justine Kurland’s. I am also going to be using the same photographic technique as Justine Kurland, which is producing tableaux images, that look like candid images.

Intention

My intention with this photoshoot is to explore the female identity and my own identity through this photoshoot as well, just how Justine Kurland found her own identity through her work. I am going to explore the female identity and present all different female identities through my work. I want to present that the female identity isn’t just what is stereotyped, but it can be whatever you want it to be. In ‘Girl Pictures,’ Justine Kurland states that, ‘Cowboys, sailors, pirates, hitchhikers, hobos, train hoppers, explorers, catchers in the rye, lords of the flies- you name it…’ She is stating that the girls in her book were all these things. She has done this, so that she can present to the viewers that they too can be whatever identity they wish to be, no matter how different or not socially acceptable it may be. I also want to present this in my work, so that I can portray to my viewers that identity is just what you make it, instead of it being what makes you.

Through this work I also want to investigate into different stereotypes and present images that oppose these stereotypical ‘norms.’ Justine Kurland presented these girls ‘in the dominion of boys’ and ‘they were trying on a version of themselves that the world has thus far shown them was boy.’ She did this, so that she could combat against female stereotypes, so that she could present to the viewers that these stereotypical ‘norms’ aren’t just what we should be allowed to be and do, but instead girls should also be able to do anything a boy can do and act in a way that a boy would. I think this is a really important message and I want to display this message well in my work, by presenting the young girls in a more rambunctious, ‘boy like’ manor, combating these stereotypical ‘norms.’

However, I want to make a twist on Justine Kurland’s work, for my own work, and I intend on doing this, by showing a larger spectrum of stereotypes, and showing stereotypes, that are not being combated. For example, I want to display these young girls following these female stereotypical norms, just how Cindy Sherman presented these stereotypical norms, because I want to display to the viewers, and to all other young girls that may see these images, that your identity can be anything you make it, and you don’t have to feel like you have to oppose these stereotypical ‘norms’, if that is who you truly are and what your identity truly is.

I always want to explore youth through my work, just like Justine Kurland did in her ‘Girl Pictures.’ As I said I also wanted to explore my identity through this project, so to explore these two things I am going to be looking back into my youth, or my ‘Girlhood’ and replicating some of the activities I used to do in my teenage years. This will help me explore youth, especially my youth and it will help me explore my identity, to see what stereotypical ‘norms’ I followed, or didn’t when I was younger. This will also help me compare my identity back then, to it now. I think youth is also a really important aspect to explore, because Justine Kurland’s whole book was based off this idea of youth and ‘girlhood,’ so to also put a twist on her work, I am making my work more internal to me, by making it relative to my youth, ‘girlhood’ and my life. I also think that youth is a very important development stage, which helps to build your identity, so I also think it would be interesting to compare my youth, to the youth shown in Justine Kurland’s book, ‘Girl Pictures.’

Photoshoot Plan

Justine Kurland- Girl Pictures

Examples of my youth:

During my teenage years, I went out with my friends a lot. Some of the outdoor places we would go, would include;

• Harve Des Pas Beach
• FB Fields
• Fort Regent
• St Brelades Bay
• Frigate
• People’s Park
• St Ouens Beach
• La Marrais
• Town
• In my car
• Georgia’s shed
• Campfire

The reason I am only choosing places which are outdoors, is because during my youth, I had more fun and did more things, while I was outdoors, instead of inside. I also wanted to keep the setting in my images still quite similar, because I think the images will relate to ‘Girl Pictures’ more, and will come out of a better standard visually.

During my youth I did many different activities including;

• Jumping off the Lido at Harve Des Pas
• Swimming in the sea
• Wave surfing at St Ouens
• Playing hide and seek at La Marrais
• Camping at St Ouens
• Have BBQ at the beach, or in gardens
• Picnic
• Get a snack/ meal
• Tan/ chill with a book
• Make a campfire

Other place ideas:

I also wanted to include settings that were used in ‘Girl Pictures,’ because I think they are visually pleasing settings, and they really help display the combat against stereotypical norms, because a dirty woods is not usually associated with femininity. Some places I have decided to include are;

• Street
• Public Bathroom
• Field
• Woods
• Barn/ shed
• Lakes/ rivers/ pond
• Mountains/ cliffs
• Walkway path
• Sandunes
• Roadside
• Under a Bridge
• Reservoir
• Rocky coast

Similar Places in Jersey:

• Cycling path along the avenue
• Snow hill, St Ounes etc.
• Field- nans garden
• St Catherines woods
• Georgia’s shed
• Sandunes
• Underground bit at harbour
• Resoviour
• Cliff paths St Brelade
• Beach
• Fort Regent park
• St Brelades campfire

Cindy Sherman- Film Stills

I am going to take inspiration from some of the stereotypes that Cindy Sherman has used in her images, as well as thinking of my ow stereotypes for both male and female.

Stereotype Ideas:

Female Stereotypes-

• Use of makeup in my images
• Doing hair
• Emotional shots eg. crying
• Using colours such as pink
• Housewife
• Cleaning
• Cooking

Male Stereotypes-

• Strong eg. use of weights
• colours such as blue
• Emotional shots eg. anger and violence
• Messing around

To fight against these stereotypes, I will have girls do these male stereotypes, so that I can present girls acting like boys.

Narrative of different Image Ideas:

• Playing on swings in a park
• Running down the street
• Getting ready/ washing in a public bathroom
• camping
• smoking
• eating ice cream/ other snacks
• Making fires
• Shooting glass bottles
• swimming
• playing catch
• Fighting/ boxing
• Hula hooping
• Playing an instrument eg. Guitar
• Blowing bubbles
• Catching sweets in mouth
• Reading books
• Walking a dog
• Climbing trees
• Washing feet in a river
• Picking flowers
• Fixing a car
• Roadtrip
• Sand castles/ lying at the beach
• Roasting marshemellows
• Climbing fences
• Sledging down the sandunes

Tools/ props needed:

• Make up
• Spray
• Hair brush
• Soap
• Cigerettes
• Snacks
• BBQ
• Glass bottle
• Toy gun
• Balls
• Hula Hoop
• Instrument
• Bubbles
• Books
• Car
• Bucket and spade
• Marshmellows
• Sledges