Claude Cahun: A Sensual Politics of Photography

This is the first single-authored book in English on the photographer Claude Cahun, whose work was rediscovered in the 1980s. Doy moves beyond standard postmodern approaches, instead repositioning the artist, born Lucy Schwob, in the context of the turbulent times in which she lived and seeing the photographs as part of Cahun's wider life as an artist and writer, a woman and lesbian and as a political activist in the early twentieth century. Doy rethinks Cahun's approach to dress and masquerade, looking at the images in light of the situation of women at the time and within the prevailing 'beauty' culture. Addressing Cahun's ambivalent relationship with Symbolism and later relationship with Surrealism, this highly readable book also looks at Cahun's unusual approach to the domestic object.