Landscapes are considered as visible features of an area of land and scenery, often considered to be aesthetic.
The history of Landscape as a Genre
Art:
16th Century
Landscape as an independent genre did not emerge in the Western tradition until the 16th Century. It is thought that this corresponded with the Renaissance, a period in history and a cultural movement marking she transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. Albrecht Altdorfer was a famous German painter, who focused on pure landscapes. He believed that the human figure should not disrupt nature, but rather participate in it, so his paintings always focused on landscapes as the main subject.
17th Century
Classical landscapes as a genre emerged in the 17th century. These landscapes were influenced by classical antiquity and sought to illustrate an ideal landscape with elements of beauty.
Nicolas Poussin- 17th century classical French Baroque style
18th Century
Landscape painting eventually gained prominence in the late 18th century with the rise of Romanticism, and often continued to carry a religious significance. Additionally, it became a method of self-expression, with the emotions of the painter and their appreciation of nature demonstrated in the painting.
Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes- 18th century landscape painting
Photography:
The earliest known evidence of a landscape photograph was taken between the years of 1826 and 1827– 19th, 20th century.
The term “rural landscape photography” often conjuresimages relating to the country, agriculture or a variety of geological and geographic features such as cropland, forests, deserts, swamps, grasslands, rivers and lakes.
Here, I presented all of my favourite and final images from my project ‘femininity and masculinity’. I lay them out so that my overall favourite image was centre, while the other photographs are surrounding it. This creates a huge contrast between the different photos and the way they are presented.
Evaluation:
Personally, I think all of my images were successful and I’m very happy with my final outcomes. My favourite overall image is this one because I like how the tone is pink which contrasts to the yellow banana. I included fruit in my photography because it feels like the subject is hiding behind it, as if its a mask. The banana portrays a smile, whereas the subject behind is not smiling and is showing a different emotion.
For all of my photoshoots, I chose to represent femininity and masculinity through the different stereotypes and expectations both genders are supposed to live up too.
Photoshoot one:
Firstly, for this photoshoot I went outside as it was snowing and I thought I could use the snow as an opportunity to include some feminine elements for my photographs. I edited the first photo by decreasing the highlights and the shadows which made a significant difference. This helped to decrease the light in the image as it was quite bright, and increase the shadows. There is also a blue tint which gives the image as a whole an ‘icy’ feel which links to the subject as they are in the snow.
For my second image, my aim was to make the subject a bit more focused so I decreased the exposure and increased the contrast. By increasing the contrast, the face looks brighter as the shadows are increased and the face looks defined.
For my last image, I chose to edit this one because the subject is using a motorbike as a prop to show a more masculine aspect. I decided to decrease the vibrancy and saturation to make it black and white. This photo looks like an ‘action-shot’ and stereotypically, women riding motorbikes is not normalised.
Photoshoot two:
I think both of these photos perfectly represent the stereotype of men, that they are more important and powerful compared to women. I like the way the subject is staring directly into the camera which replicates the ‘male gaze’ and reinforces this idea of the stereotype.
Photoshoot three:
Lastly, I edited this photo to make it softer and give off a more ‘feminine vibe’. I like the way her skin looks very shiny, and she is lightly gazing over her shoulder towards to camera to represent innocence. I made the background darker and her skin brighter, so the viewer feels like they can only focus on the main subject.
I then experimented by changing the vibrancy and saturation to make this image black and white, whilst keeping the edits of the previous image the same. This enhances the feeling of ‘innocence’ to the viewer. Femininity is represented nicely here as the subject is close up and we can see her face features very clearly. Stereotypically, women are supposed to have long hair, soft facial features and nice skin. As we can see here, this model represents all of those aspects finely.
Finally, this is my favourite image I edited because femininity is represented in a different way. Rather than reflecting on the stereotypes, femininity is presented here through the large amount of skin on show, and her long red nails. Many years ago, when women were seen as less important then men, and they were only stay at home wives/mums, they were expected to keep their skin hidden by wearing long, concealing clothing and to keep their nails short and clean. If lots of skin was on show it was seen as provocative. The colour pink, ribbons and lace are also associated with typical feminism, whereas the colour blue is seen to be linked to masculinity. As we see in the image above, the model is revealing her skin to show us how much this has changed over time. The long, red nails represent a sense of power, confidence and individuality as red symbolises femininity.
I edited all of these images using Lightroom, with the hopes of improving them and completing the ideas I had in mind. I tried to experiment with different things, for example, black and white tones. The black and white inspiration came from Claude Cahun as I believe most of Cahun’s work is in black and white which she used to reflect on herself as a person. I think the black and white tone goes really well with the specific photos I chose because it sets the mood of the photograph. Personally, I think all of these edited photographs represent Femininity and Masculinity in many different but clear ways.
To choose my best images from the photoshoot, I went through and rated all of the photos using stars, 4/5 and 5/5 stars mean that they are my overall best images. I then colour coded them. Red means photos which are not the best, yellow are photos which I could use but they’re not amazing, and green are the best images I will use and edit.
“Under this mask another mask. I will never finish removing all these faces.”
Early life:
Claude Cahun, born with the name ‘Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob’, was a French writer, sculptor and photographer. Cahun was born into a wealthy Jewish family. In her late teens and early twenties Cahun had been looking for a new, gender-neutral name for a while. Around 1914, she changed her name to Claude Cahun. Cahun is most known for her self-portraits that portray her as ambiguously gendered and as different characters. Cahun started taking her first self-portraits around 1912, when she was 18, and continued taking images of herself throughout the 1930s, creating a lifelong obsession with examining gender, using herself as subject. Marcel Moore, born Suzanne Alberte Malherbe, and Cahun met when they were only 17 and 15. From this onwards, they created an artistic and romantic partnership together. The two became step-sisters in 1917 after Cahun’s divorced father and Moore’s widowed mother married. During the early 1920s, they settled in Paris together. She and Moore then returned to Jersey to live, taking up their old names and letting people assume they were sisters. For the rest of their lives together, Cahun and Moore collaborated on various written works, sculptures, photomontages and collages.
Work:
Most of Cahun’s work was often collaborated with Marcel Moore, her long-life partner. Cahun used her artwork as a parallel to her real life. In an untitled portrait from 1921–22, Cahun erased the visible traces of femininity by shaving her head, wearing masculine clothes like a dinner suit, and avoiding jewellery and makeup. Since Cahun’s photographic self-portraits were never publicly exhibited, art historians have asked whether these photographs were intended for public viewing at all. In this particular image, Cahun’s facial expression intends to make the audience feel uncomfortable. She is intensely staring into the camera and it looks as though her eyesight is towards the photographer, and not the viewers.
Artist inspiration
For all of my photoshoots, I was inspired by Claude Cahun. I have picked this particular photo because we tried to recreate one of Cahun’s artworks as much as possible. As you can see, both of these images are in black and white, and the subject holds a miserable face towards the camera. I think this is really effective as it makes the viewer question what the story behind the image is.
Photoshoot 1: For this photoshoot, I am planning on taking photos in the snow with the nature as a background. We will use the flowers and trees to add more of a feminine aspect. I will try and include elements of masculinity by using props, for example a motorbike or a car.
Photoshoot 2: For this photoshoot, I am planning on taking photos in the studio focusing on femininity by taking photos of a female doing her makeup. We will use props like makeup and a mirror. I am also going to take photos of my model dressing up as a boy and using props to support these masculine images.
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.
