Femininity & Masculinity, As Told By Photographers

"It is absurd to divide humanity into men and women. It is composed only of femininity and masculinity."

This text was taken from Valentine de Saint Point's Manifesto of the Futurist Woman, which inspired the curator of this year's Photo50, as part of the London Art Fair 2016, Federica Chiocchetti. Gender in photography is a thoroughly explored theme, but as Federica says, "These words prompted me to look at women and men in relation to one another, instead of focusing on gender as an individual entity."

Federica has brought together 16 artists; 11 of them female, 5 male. They range from the well established to the emerging, and collectively explore gender as a behaviour, a performance, a social construct.

‘Feminine Masculine’ is divided into five sections: ‘He loves me, He loves me not’, ‘Till Death Do Us Apart’, ‘Ennui and Obsession’, ‘Carrying-On without Them’ and ‘Wrap Thee with Fluctuant Winds’. These poetic chapters lead us on a journey from the more subjective explorations of relationships – Elinor Carucci on her intimate relations with her husband, for example – to the more voyeuristic, like Paul Schneggenburger's photographs of lovers asleep taken with a six hour exposure from midnight to 6am.