Claude Cahun

About

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob, was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, writer, and political activist renowned for her innovative self-portraits that explored gender fluidity, identity, and androgyny. Adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914, she began photographing around age 12 and seriously experimented in the 1920s, producing works featuring disguises like aviator, dandy, doll, and vampire, often in collaboration with lifelong partner Marcel Moore, who designed sets and assisted with photomontages. Cahun's writing included prose poems in Vues et visions (1919), the novel Heroines (1925), and the seminal Aveux non avenus (1930), a collection of dreams, aphorisms, and collages. She engaged with Surrealism on the fringes, associating with André Breton, signing declarations, and participating in exhibitions like the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition, while critiquing communism in Les Paris sont ouverts (1934) and co-founding Contre-Attaque (1935).[1][2][3][4][5]

Surrealist self-portraits exploring gender ambivalence, androgyny, identity fluidity, and psychological multiplicity through masks, costumes, mirrors, and collages.