Long Exposures from Loughborough Fair

Spinner, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Carousel, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Trails, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Spin, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Self Portrait Series

Greek God Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil

Hoodie Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil

Monkey Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil

Split Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil

Scattered Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil

Slap Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil

Chad Photo Shoot

Dramatic Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

Filtered Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

I used a honeycomb flash filter to create these dramatic self portraits.  Though these are successful images and a useful tool in exploring my own gender fluidity, they lack a sense of purpose as the subject appears too authentically male for their gender to be questioned by the viewer.

Chad Photo Shoot

Open Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

Undressing Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

The aim of these images was to create a sense of ambiguity by exposing the centre of the subject's torso to further the viewer's questioning of the subject's gender.

Chad Photo Shoot

Chad On Chair, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

I felt that using a chair as a prop would enable me to create some more masculine poses to add to the effect of gender as performance, which I think worked successfully.

Chad Photo Shoot

Sideboob Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

Chest Tape, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

Chad Frontal, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photograph

I used the continuous lighting studio to create some dramatic self portraits as Chad.  For these images I wanted to masculinise my body my taping down my breasts and covering the nipples.  I think the headless image is particularly interesting due to the sense of ambiguity created by the masculine pose and covered nipples.
I plan to expand on these images in a future shoot in which I will bind my chest or pose fully topless to create a greater sense of ambiguity and gender fluidity.

Submissions for International Postcard Exhibition

Fluidity, Chaz Howkins, 2016, pencil and fine liner

Identify, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photographic collage

I created these two 4x6" pieces to submit to the Surface Gallery Exhibition.  'Identify' is a smaller recreation of my collages as I thought they were quite successful and wanted to experiment with scale.  I created 'Fluidity' from a photo manipulation of myself as three characters of varying genders; I originally intended to write 'gender is a social construct' over the drawing, but felt this made the piece too literal.  I instead opted for the gender fluidity symbol as I felt this was more subtle.

Gender Definitions

Gender Fluid Definition,  Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

One of my aims with this project was to educate and raise awareness of commonly overlooked gender identities such as gender fluidity; I feel this piece could be a useful tool in education.

Gender is...

Gender is a Social Construct,  Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation

Gender is a Spectrum,  Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation

I felt that the double/triple exposures of myself as various characters were interesting but more could be done to them, so I added text to them to reinforce the points I was trying to get across.

This makes the images perhaps too literal, so I may experiment with further ways of expressing gender as a spectrum.

Digital Triple Exposures

Triple Exposure 1, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation 

 Triple Exposure 2, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation

Following my series of double exposures of Chaz vs Chad, I realised I was reinforcing the concept of gender as binary, which I don't agree with.  I decided to include three portraits in these photo manipulations so that the two characters weren't just male and female but rather portrayed gender as a spectrum.

Digital Double Exposures

Opposites,  Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation

Crossover,  Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation 

Duality,  Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo manipulation

After my frustration and disappointment with attempting to create double exposures using a film camera, I decided to go digital so I could fully realise my intentions of overlaying multiple images of myself dressed up as Chaz and Chad.