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.

Gender Juxtapositions

Gender Juxtapositions, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

This image is a recreation of an earlier photograph juxtaposing 'masculine' clothing with 'feminine' hair and makeup.  What really makes an individual appear masculine or feminine?

Is the subject a man, woman or neither?

http://chazhowkins.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/self-portrait.html

Photographic Collages

Charlie Collage, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photographic collage

Charlie Collage 2, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photographic collage

Faces, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photographic collage

Faces 2, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photographic collage

Faces 3, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photographic collage

I realised that in a lot of my work so far, I have accidentally been reinforcing the idea of gender as binary, which I don't agree with - and my initial intention was to explore the idea of gender as a spectrum.  Many of my initial ideas related to the idea of 'Chaz vs Chad' (myself and my male alter ego) however I feel this is far too restrictive and binary so I will now be exploring myself as Charlie as this covers all genders rather than just two.

In the first two collages (Charlie Collage 1 & 2) I used various images of myself as a range genders.  My intention was to create confusing images which make the viewer question the gender of the subject, to which I would respond, does it matter?  I find it fascinating how frustrated people can get when they can't work out someone's gender.

In the next three collages I included images of myself and of other people (males) to make the images even more confusing.  However I prefer the Charlie collages as they involve a level of self exploration making them far more personal than the Faces collages.

Chad Photography

Chad Mugshot, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Chad Selfie, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Chad Shadow, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Chad Neck, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Long Haired Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Sleepy Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

These are select images from several photoshoots in which I have dressed up as Chad, my male alter ego.  I enjoy dressing up as Chad as the resulting images are confusing to people who know me as they half recognise the character they are seeing but can't quite place them.  I plan to take this photography further by creating more dramatic/staged images using proper lighting and a clean background.

Double Exposures

Contact sheet of double exposures

I created these double exposures by putting a 35mm film through the camera twice; I marked the film in hopes that they would align but they didn't, which created an interesting effect anyway.  I think these images are interesting and I plan to enlarge several of them, however this was really just an experiment.  I think using film is far too experimental and unreliable so I plan to create a series of double exposures digitally using photoshop.

Photography Workshop

Large Format Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

I created this image using a large format camera, which was very tedious to use as it is such a long and technical process.  Though I enjoyed the photography workshop and found it interesting using various cameras and techniques which were new to me, I was not converted to the world of film cameras as I still believe that anything I could create using film could be created more easily, quickly, cheaply and successfully using digital.

Photography Workshop

Dissected Chad, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photo collage

For this image I cut up my photographic paper before exposing onto it at fragmented, overlapping angles.  I then collaged it back together to make a confusing, disjointed image of an unidentifiable character. 

Photography Workshop

Chad³, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

I created this image by moving the paper twice while exposing from my large format film.  I wanted this image to be confusing and the gender of the subject to be unidentifiable, which I feel I have done rather successfully.

Photography Workshop

Loughborough Fair, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Loughborough Fair Horse, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

Shattered Mirror, Chaz Howkins, 2015, photograph

These were my most successful images from the first two weeks of the photography workshop in which we exposed, developed and enlarged images from 35mm film.

Nine Frames Project (Loughborough Whispers Performance)

Aftermath of performance

I took part in an interactive performance called Loughborough Whispers, a take on Chinese Whispers, during which several artists were supplied with a range of materials and took it in turns to create something, picking up where the last left off.