Anna Sampson is a photographer who uses shocking and obscene photos to challenge societal views of gender norms. Her photos depict themes like gender fluidity and defiance of traditional gender roles. Juno Calypso also explores gender and femininity through her artistic photos featuring her alter ego "Joyce". Francesca Woodman took nude and blurred photos exploring themes of fragility and youth. Cindy Sherman pioneered work questioning gender and societal standards through character development and documentary series. Third wave feminism in the 90s inspired artists like Grayson Perry to explore gender identity and individual expression.

1. MORE RESEARCH

2. ANNA SAMPSON
Anna Sampson is a photographer who explores sexuality and gender in her
work. Her photos are obscene and shocking to the audience. She gets her
point across in a bold manner, shouting at her audience. Her photos are
extremely effective when it comes to thinking about gender norms and how
people express themselves.
The style of photography in which she focuses is Feminist Art, and she has a
series of photos called ‘Gender Trouble’, which show men in typically
feminine clothing. She has daring photos of genitalia and images that would
shock a more conservative audience. She uses photography to show others
that gender is fluid and isn’t a set thing or idea. She challenges society’s
views on gender, defying all the views that it once held. She is a forward
moving photographer, aiding the change in society’s views.
She breaks down the barrier of a typical man and woman, showing men acting
feminine, which is something that has been deemed to be weak and not really
socially acceptable. However, times are changing!

3. SAMPSON’S WORK

4. JUNO CALYPSO
Juno Calypso is a British artist and photographer who explores femininity,
isolation and being self-sufficient in her work. She uses bright typically feminine
colours – pinks, light blues, yellows, greens – in her work to convey the message
of stereotypical femininity. She uses the female body and ‘classic’ Hollywood
beauty in her work.
‘Joyce’ her alter ego is the main focus of her art. Similar to Perry’s ‘Claire’, ‘Joyce’
is a hyper-feminine character who explores her sexuality and gender for all to
see. ‘Joyce’ is a bored, frustrated, lonely housewife which lives in Calypso’s
imagination. She uses colour to emphasize the romantic aspects and female
aspects of her work.
“The work is about the "oppressive elements of femininity", its "restrictive beauty
regimes and modern rituals of seduction".[16] She has said "I'm trying to make a
perfect photograph of a woman trying to create a perfect vision of herself."

5. CALYPSO’
S WORK

6. FRANCESCA WOODMAN
Woodman is known for taking nude of semi-nude photographs. She blurs out
parts of her work to show a timeless effect to her photos. Her photos are both
beautiful but disturbing. Each photo has a sense that something it slightly off.
She explore fragility in her work, and how fragile humans really are.
“Francesca Woodman’s entire body of work was produced as a young person
and created over just eight short years. Her photographs explore many themes
that affect young people such as relationships, sexuality, questions of self, body
image, alienation, isolation and confusion or ambiguity about personal identity.”
She explore the themes of a young, wild, life, a lot of her work shows dying
young, which she, herself, did. She had an extremely short career, dying at the
age of 22.
I like her style of photography, and it is something that I will definitely try out in
my experiments. I think the way she cameras in such an artistic way is so
impressive and inspiring. It is something that is so interesting and modern, and
I want to see if I could do it.

7. Woodman’s
Work

8. CINDY SHERMAN
Cindy Sherman explored different identities in her work. She often wished that
everyday could be Halloween and dress up in different eccentric outfits each day.
She started by explore female characters in her early career. Then as her career
moved forward, she started exploring what femininity and masculinity was.
Sherman used society to influence her work. She used stereotypical views of
women to express her distress through her art. She created short poetic
documentaries and photography series. Her series SOS showed her through a
development of pictures becoming more feminine from masculine.
Without Cindy Sherman, feminism in art would not be as relevant as it is.
Question societies standard would not be at the same level. She was one of the
first people to question both gender and society, and being a woman, it is even
more revolutionary. It was never seen before until Sherman tackled this through
her art. Photography art would not be at the same daring standard either.

9. Sherma
n’s
Work

10. WHAT IS ‘FEMININITY’?
Femininity are attributes of characteristics that are associated with women. Typically, these
things include: pink, dresses, heels, flowers, dancing, makeup, emotional responses,
gentleness, sensitivity, affection etc. However, most of the emotions connected to femininity,
have been deemed weak or cowardly. In a society built on power and strength, they idea of
‘femininity’ has been stripped down to be lesser then masculinity.
History shows us that white men have been considered the most powerful in society. They
are the oppressors of the world. Each group who have been discriminated against for
uncontrollable things such as race, biological gender, sexuality or disability, have been put
down by white men. But when it came to oppression against women, most men were
responsible, no matter race. These ideas of femininity being weak have been decided by
men. Over the years, society has created solid ideas of what a man and a woman should be,
and it’s only recently that them walls are finally being broken down.
Sex and gender are two different things. Sex is the parts we were born with – a penis of
vagina. Gender is what those parts make the person – a man or a woman. However, gender is
real. It is a social construct made to categorize people. If you think about it, we are just a
rock floating through space. Nothing really matters, and what you identify as shouldn’t
either. We live in a world where gender is forced upon us, a social construct we have to
follow. When we are free to be who we like, when we like. There are no rules to life and no

11. 3RD WAVE FEMINISM AND GRAYSON
PERRY
During the Pre-therapy years, society was experiencing 3rd wave feminism. This
was mainly in the 90s, giving us the Riot Grrrl era. My personal favorite wave, very
daring and obscene, women doing what they want, shouting for their rights as
women. It has been extremely influential to me as a gen z woman.
This wave began defining what a feminist was and ramped up individualism in
society and self expression. You can see the influence it had in Perry’s work.
Women all over the world began destroying beauty standards and stereotypical
thoughts of how they should act. You had girl groups such as the Spice Girls and
Destiny’s Child, publicly knocking down these ideas and women such as Sinéad
O'Connor who was constantly questioning society, which made her one of the
most controversial singers to this day. Personally, I don’t think fighting against
child abuse or her rights is controversial.
Perry really explored his inner femininity through his art. It is incredible to see a
visual of his personal thoughts and feelings in such an artistic way.

12. EXPERIMENTS INSPIRED
BY RESEARCH