Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .

• Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
• Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
• It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
• Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages, page number to be used for in-text referencing etc.

Essay Plan
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure

• Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. WHAT THEY DO, HOW THEY DO IT, WHY, WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN INSPIRED BY, WHAT HAVE THEY LEARNT ON THEIR JOURNEY
• Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

• Healy, C. M. (2023) Girlhood, London: Tate Enterprises Ltd.
• https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo25al/2024/11/13/theory-the-photographic-gaze/
• Wells L. (1998). ‘The Photographic Gaze’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
• Kelly, A. (1998). ‘Self Image: Personal is Political’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
• Jones, A. (2002). ‘The Eternal Return: Self-Portrait Photography as Technology of Embodiment’ in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Vol. 27: Number 4). Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• https://aperture.org/featured/justine-kurland-girl-pictures/
• Bengal, R. (2020). ‘The Jeremys’ in Girl Pictures. New York; Aperture

Essay question:

How do feminist artists use art and photography to display messages to society?

“I wanted to foreground girls’ lives, centring them by creating an all-female society.” – Once said by Justine Kurland.

The works of Justine Kurland express the heritage of youth and girlhood. Specifically through her book, Girl Pictures. Girl Pictures is a photobook, presenting an enduring symbol of romance, rebellion, escape, and freedom through the use of teenage runaways. Taken between 1997 and 2002, Kurland focused on the roads in the American wilderness. My area study will take inspiration from the photobook, where young females are presented as offering intimacy and protection to one another, to strengthen relationships during adolescence. Kurland’s work stands out to me because she experiments with nostalgia to evoke a sense of freedom and escape, and this successfully links to my project as I am aiming to reflect these themes through my own personal experiences as growing up as a girl. Along with Family Album by Ramona Jingru Wang, which shed light on the exploitations of models, and was a quiet refusal of specific representations of them. Wang’s images in this series capture her family, where she delves into the themes of identity and the connections between humans and the space around us. I took inspiration from Wang due to her unique approaches to photographing young girls, and how they are portrayed to us as typical females – nurturing and compassionate towards each another. I believe that both photographers capture femininity and youth very well as they present their work from a female perspective, making it easier for me to interpret and understand their values as well as their photographic style.

I am pleased that I am basing my personal study project on the themes of youth and femininity as I feel passionately towards both topics. Femininity is significant to me as I am a young female who feels the need to carry out certain feminine qualities in order to display my place in social circles, as well as society as a whole. I believe that femininity is a complex mixture of qualities and characteristics that exhibit narratives that only women can do, which therefore ultimately separates us from men. Despite this, feminism in general is seen as a movement to end sexism, which I also think plays a vital role in my project as women have faced many battles with sexism for decades, and I would like to touch on these conventions in my project. These values of mine have guided me to focus my project on femininity, as I feel it allows people to find their personal identity and can help us explore how femininity is expressed through different generations and cultures. Youth is equally as important to me as I aim to successfully highlight the impact youth has on an individual, through being able to develop their skills and also finding their own personality that they feel they can express to the world. I think my two themes link effectively to one another because I think they are both mainly shaped by societal factors. In my opinion, society idolises youth and associates it with beauty which then creates pressure for young females to adopt these elements into their identity.

I will be responding to these two artists by