Here is my Top 3 best photos that resemble Masculinity

These are my final photos after I have edited them.

Here are my Top 3 photos that resemble femininity.

My photoshoot plan I’m going to use for masculinity vs femininity.

Final Photoshoots:

A woman with ‘feminine’ products and objects, (makeup).

Take a photo of a man holding masculine items with no shirt, (briefcase, aftershave).

Go into a ‘feminine looking’ room (pink walls), (ballet pictures), with a masculine guy on the bed in front of the camera.

Photo Contact Sheet:
Femininity:

For the feminine photoshoot, I did myself and other males wearing makeup, holding stereotypical female objects like perfume, body spray, makeup and has curves too. Also, a female model wearing a crop top which is considered feminine, necklace, and herself holding makeup and using it.

Masculinity:

For the masculine photoshoot, I took photos of myself and some more models showing off ‘masculine muscles’, holding objects that are either heavy or show off ‘masculine’ vibes. Also, jaw lines and males Adams apple.

Cindy Sherman works with female stereotypes and invents personas and tableaus that identify the nature of females. She does this by creating images that assumes gender roles like a photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser and stylist. Whilst also portraying a career girl, a blond bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age. For over 35 years she created eloquent and provocative body of work for our visual culture.

Sherman’s photography is a depiction of the different ways culture defines “woman.” Her art plays on the feminist idea that gender arises exclusively within culture and deconstructs dominant gender ideologies, representing the underside of popular culture’s definition of “woman.”

She rose to fame in the international art world with her series of black-and-white photographs, “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80), which advanced the concept of narrative photography. 

Renowned for her depictions of female stereotypes, Sherman has played with masculinity and gender expression before. In a series referred to as “Doctor and Nurse,” Sherman became both a male and female character, embodying stereotypical mid-century professional archetypes.

Claude Cahun was a spirit of rebellion and defiance. She was a defying conventional ideals of beauty and femininity with a shaven head and male attire, to her direct resistance of German occupying forces.

Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist’s self-portrait from 1928 epitomizes her attitude and style, as she stares defiantly at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine.

In this photo, Cahun deceives the audience because they dress up to look like a masculine man with a heavy weight in their hand, short hair, and male clothes like shorts with shirt. But in reality, the weight is fake, the hair is tied up behind so you can’t see it, so the overall photo deceives us, the audience.

Identity
A photograph resembles the likeness of what appeared before the lens. Which means

Identity Politics

Identity politics, as a mode of categorizing, are closely connected to the ascription that some social groups are oppressed (such as women, ethnic minorities, and sexual minorities); that is, the idea that individuals belonging to those groups are, by virtue of their identity, more vulnerable to forms of oppression.

Identity Politics in Jersey

Jersey didn’t want to move away from English and convert to Jerriais because they saw Jerriais as a ‘farm’ language and saw English as more of an international language.

Masculinity is seen to be the trait which emphasizes ambition, acquisition of wealth, and differentiated gender roles. Masculinity involves displaying attitudes and behaviours that signify and validate maleness, and involves being recognised in particular ways by other men and women. Traits traditionally viewed as masculine in Western society include strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness.

Femininity is a quality of acting in a typically womanly, girlish, or feminine way. Different cultures have different ideas of what femininity looks like. If you’re a gentle, sweet-natured person, your grandmother may praise your femininity. Traits such as nurturance, sensitivity, sweetness, supportiveness, gentleness, warmth, passivity, cooperativeness, expressiveness, modesty, humility, empathy, affection, tenderness, and being emotional, kind, helpful, devoted, and understanding have been cited as stereotypically feminine.

Masculinity Vs Femininity is that in a masculine culture, men are expected to be assertive, competitive, and focused on material success. Women are expected to be nurturing and focused on people and quality of life. In contrast, Hofstede says a feminine culture or feminine society is one where gender roles are more fluid.

This photo contradicts the masculinity vs femininity because it is a man with no shirt which is masculine, but then it shows him using makeup which is feminine, so it’s actually both in one photo.

Mood Board:

The plan:

• Subject looks off into distance or directly at the camera.
• Multiple exposures behind/to the side or infront.
• Centre of the frame.
• Need to line up eyes if they are both pictures are same angle.
• Main photo no expression, layered photo shows facial expression.
• Dark background, layered photos less or more transparency.

For this multi-exposure montage picture I imported my model into photoshop, duplicated it two more times and dragged the two copied pictures behind the main photo and selected both of them to have 50% opacity with no background and put them equal on each side.

For this photo I imported the same picture twice with both overlapping each other with the multiply effect on both. Then created a box on the left with the left photo, made it pink, flipped the other same photo to the other side but made it green, but left a thick white bar in the middle to show the split.

The Plan:

• I will take photos of my subjects facing towards the camera either straight or slightly tilted, and then go into photoshop and use the select tool to select either a triangle shape or square shape on the subjects face and move it to another part of their face like their hair or forehead and the two shapes should swap. For example, if I moved a part of the cheek to the hair then that part of hair would be where the cheek is.

For this photo I used, soft lighting with the body tilted slightly off centre frame, but his head facing directly towards the camera with eyes focus into the lens with only a subtle smile but no other emotions and no other gestures.

For this photo I used a model but I pasted the same picture 3 times and with the middle photo, I made it black and white and just cropped it to the eyes then copped the final photo just from the eyes and below to create this photo montage triple eye image.

Diamond Cameo
Diamond Cameo is when four small oval portraits were placed in background in the shape of a diamond with each portrait being of the same person photographed in a different position.

Henry Mullins moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Here he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle ect.) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).

My take on Diamond Cameo:

Started by taking a few photos of each other with different face angles to recreate the diamond cameo look.

I really liked these 4 pictures of myself looking in different directions, so I used them in photoshop by copy and pasting them in, moving each photo to the correct position, creating oval shapes to go behind the photos with bevels and shadows on. Old, tea-stained paper for the overall background to give it an old look and then with the dodge tool, I lightened up parts on my neck/face.

Here is my photoshoot from studio portraits where I took a total of 164 photos.

What I did in this photograph was Rembrandt, which is when you create a little triangle shape below the eye on the shaded side, (right eye). Also, I edited the photo by making him warmer using brighter saturated colours and using these edits:

Another Rembrandt example I edited was this photo, but I didn’t need to edit it as much as it’s already good lighting and just had to lighten him up a little and bring out the triangle a little more.

Rembrandt Lighting: Rembrandt lighting is a technique for portrait photography. It refers to a way of lighting a face so that an upside-down light triangle appears under the eyes of the subject.

Why is Rembrandt Lighting Used?
Rembrandt lighting instantly creates shadows and contrast and with the triangle light beneath the models eye. Which is the main focal point of the image.

This is how you would setup your camera, light and person if you were trying to do Rembrandt lighting. Because the camera is at an angle facing the person, with the light at the opposite side, so half of the face gets shadowed but because of the angles of each object it creates a triangle underneath the persons eye depending what side each of the objects are on.

Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.

Butterfly Lighting: Butterfly lighting is a type of portrait lighting technique used primarily in a studio setting. Its name comes from the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms under the nose because the light comes from above the camera.

Why is Butterfly lighting used?
It is used for taking flattering, glamorous portrait photos. The lighting is soft on the face. It forms a butterfly-shaped shadow under the subject’s nose, which is the source of the name. It is ideal for portraits as it highlights the subject’s main features, like the nose and cheekbones.

To do this setup, position the reflector under the subject’s face. Start at waist level and see how it looks. If the shadows are still strong, move it closer to the face and so on.

Chiaroscuro Lighting: Chiaroscuro refers to the way light and shadow are used to create realistic three-dimensional images on flat two-dimensional surfaces. Chiaroscuro uses the contrast between light and dark to spotlight images for dramatic effect.

In this photo of our studio setup, we were trying to use Chiaroscuro by putting the flash light directly on one side of the model, the camera facing the model straight on and in the middle and with the reflector to try get a small brighter reflection on his left side of his face.

Why is Chiaroscuro Lighting used?
The effect uses light and shadow to highlight a subject and create additional depth in the background. It can be used to add shadow to make an object rise off the page, or side lighting to create a painterly effect. To create realistic three-dimensional images on flat two-dimensional surfaces. 

Chiaroscuro is using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.