Collaborative Photography - An Exploration Of Androgyny

Androgyny 1, Chaz Howkins and Katya Veleva, 2016, photography

Androgyny 2, Chaz Howkins and Katya Veleva, 2016, photography

Androgyny 3,  Chaz Howkins and Katya Veleva, 2016, photography

My girlfriend and I collaborated to create this portrait series which explores androgyny.  I put the images in black and white so that the viewer wasn't distracted by hair colour or skin tone while attempting to identify the subject.

Manipulated Portraits

Pinned, Chaz Howkins, 2016, manipulated photographs

Sewn, Chaz Howkins, 2016, manipulated photographs

Further manipulated portraits to represent a struggle of being torn between identities.

Manipulated Portraits

Torn Apart, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo collage

Further collaging of Charlotte and Chad to represent hiding an alternative identity but having it show through.

Manipulated Portraits

Crossover 1, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

Crossover 2, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

Crossover Sections, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

I collaged images of Charlotte and Chad to represent an internal conflict of identity and to explore the extent to which you can cross over features of characters of different genders before their gender is questioned.

Woven Portraits

Woven Portraits, Chaz Howkins, 2016, woven photographs

Distorted Portraits

Distorted Portraits - Beard Hole, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

Distorted Portraits - Makeup, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

Distorted Portraits - Long Lips, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation

I created these distorted portraits by moving the images around while photocopying them.  I feel these images aren't as successful as the distorted bodies, however I plan to use them as a part of future collages.

Shakespeare Exhibition

Elizabethan Self Portrait, Chaz Howkins, 2016, acrylic

Selfie with my selfie 

I created this painting for a Shakespeare themed exhibition.  My intention was to create a classical style portrait of a genderqueer subject to communicate that genderqueer people have always existed and that challenging gender expectations is not a contemporary concept.

Progress of Elizabethan Self Portrait

Concrete Workshop Outcomes

Concrete Fluidity, Chaz Howkins, 2016, concrete

Concrete Fluidity, Chaz Howkins, 2016, concrete

I carved the gender fluidity symbol into a block of styrofoam so that the concrete would cast with the symbol raised on its surface.  Gender fluidity is often dismissed as an identity, so I wanted to cast the symbol in concrete to create a sense of permanence and validity.

Sculpture Maquette

Middle Finger Maquette, Chaz Howkins, 2016, clay

I created this maquette using clay and may venture into creating a life size version using body casting.  The expressive hands cover where the breasts should be in an attempt to express a sense frustration from being restricted by your physical form.

Manipulated Double Exposures

Fluidity Symbol, Chaz Howkins, 2016, photo manipulation and paint

After creating a postcard sized drawing of this image, I felt it would work well on a larger scale so I splattered paint over an A3 print out of the image.  I feel it was more successful as a drawing due to how the symbol becomes lost within the colour, so my next step is either to paint the symbol over a black and white print out or to draw image again on a larger scale.

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.