Cahun, Claude, 1894-1954

Claude Cahun (French: [klod kaœ̃]; born Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob; 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. From 1920 onwards she began to appear publicly under this name. Her photographic work is characterised by self‑stagings, light reflections and shadows. The artist saw herself as a master of transformation and used photography to record her metamorphoses. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae. In her writing, Cahun mostly referred to herself with grammatically feminine words, but she also said that her actual gender was fluid. For example, in what is generally considered to be her masterpiece, Aveux non avenus (1930), Cahun writes: "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me." Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time. During World War II, Cahun and lifelong partner Marcel Moore launched a two-person resistance campaign against the Nazis who had occupied Jersey. For this they would be sentenced to death (saved at the last minute by the Armistice). They were also active in the leftist group Contre Attaque, a union of communist writers, artists and workers, alongside André Breton.