Michel — a series of portraits

To me gender
is not physical at all,
but is altogether
insubstantial. It is
soul,perhaps,
it is talent, it is taste,
it is environment,
it is how one feels,
it is light and shade,
it is inner music......
It is the essentialness
of oneself.
Jan Morris, 1974 Conundrum

When you meet a human being the first distinction you make is male or female and you are accustomed to make this distinction with unhesitating certainty. Sigmund Freud

The questions of gender, sexuality and where society places the divide between male and female, between what is masculine and what is feminine has long been an area of great fascination to Tallulah. However it was a chance meeting with a young man who was intrigued by the same issues that led to the series of portraits entitled Michel. The resulting collection of photographs does not attempt to hide the subjectÌs masculinity but rather explores the space where the male and female gender intersect.

The series is unusual in its division of gender roles: the male subject providing the inspiration for the female artist. However, the work is perhaps better described as a collaboration. The subject is not merely a model; his ideas and thoughts worked with TallulahÌs to create this body of work which aims to challenge mainstream representations of gender and sexuality.

The pictures are open to several layers of interpretation. They play with the notions of sexuality and gender differentiation through colour and costume. As with classical painting the imagery is coded with objects representing the polarities of male and female: soft versus hard, metal versus silk, free versus trapped. The constant theme is to subvert the usual through juxtaposing the typical with the surprising.

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