 claude cahun (25 october 1894 â 8 december 1954) was a french artist, photographer and writer. her work was both political and personal, and often undermined traditional concepts of gender roles. though cahun's writings suggested she identified as agender, most academic writings use feminine pronouns when discussing her and her work, as there is little documentation that gender neutral pronouns were used or preferred by the artist. ==early life== born in nantes as lucy renee mathilde schwob, claude was the niece of an avant-garde writer marcel schwob and the great-niece of orientalist david lÃ©on cahun. she was brought up by her grandmother, mathilde cahun. she began making photographic self-portraits as early as 1912, when she was 18 years old, and she continued taking images of herself through the 1930s. around 1919, she changed her name to claude cahun, after having previously used the names claude courlis (after the curlew) and daniel douglas (after lord alfred douglas). during the early 20s, she settled in paris with her lifelong partner and step-sibling suzanne malherbe. for the rest of their lives together, cahun and malherbe (who adopted the name "marcel moore") collaborated on various written works, sculptures, photomontages and collages. the two published articles and novels, notably in the periodical "mercure de france", and befriended henri michaux, pierre morhange and robert desnos. around 1922 claude and malherbe began holding artists' salons at their home. among the regulars who would attend were artists henri michaux and andrÃ© breton and literary entrepreneurs sylvia beach and adrienne monnier. ==work==  cahun's work encompassed writing, photography, and theater. she is most remembered for her highly staged self-portraits and tableaux that incorporated the visual aesthetics of surrealism. her published writings include "heroines," (1925) a series of monologues based upon female fairy tale characters and intertwi
1894_births 1954_deaths Feminist_artists French_Jews French_photographers French_women_artists French_women_writers Genderqueer_people LGBT_Jews LGBT_writers_from_France Lesbian_artists Lesbian_writers People_from_Nantes People_from_Saint_Saviour,_Jersey Surrealist_artists Transgender_and_transsexual_writers Women_Surrealists Women_photographers