Title:
Subversions of Sensuality Within Lesbian Photography
Author(s):
Ann Schofield
Author Email:
aschofie@unca.edu
Department:
ART/ART HISTORY
Faculty Mentor(s):
Leisa Rundquist
Eva Hericks-Bares
Abstract / Summary:
The self-portraits of Claude Cahun and Zanele Muholi reveal a connective history of lesbian artmaking outside the expectations of both gender binaries and patriarchal oppression. Claude Cahun (French, 1894-1954) used photography as a means of self-expression and subversion. Cahun created work that challenged depictions of women as moldable muses or models for a male artist to control during the Surrealist movement of the 1920s and beyond. Cahun’s 1927 self-portrait, Don’t Kiss Me, I’m in Training fuses both hyper-masculine and hyper-feminine elements to create a dynamic and influential depiction of gender non-conformity within the lesbian experience. Zanele Muholi, a South African artist born in 1972, explores the intersection between Queer and African identities within their self-portraits taken over 2012-2020, entitled Somnyama Ngonyama. The collection demonstrates the ways in which photography can be used to subvert objectifications, to rewrite and reclaim white-washed histories, as well as to explore intimacy within lesbian partnerships. Muholi’s Bona III subverts expectations of what it means to be in control of one’s sensuality. From the sensual modesty of La Grande Odalisque (1814) by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres to the fervent orientalism of Lenhert and Landrock postcards (c.1900), this research contextualizes the exploitation of lesbian sexuality, and the ways in which Muholi and Cahun engage with and counteract these complex histories.
Publication Date:
May-14-2024
Documents: