Ell Hammond Photography

Ongoing project ‘The Performance of My Gender’ 2023-

Exploring gender identity and my own gender through the investigation into the theory of gender performativity, I re-created old family photos, becoming my parents and my younger self. By becoming people I know well, it allowed me to confront and reflect on all the change that has happened in my life. I am not the ‘girl’ I once was. This work shows me realising my own gender by imitating different familial gender roles, becoming the ‘dad’, the ‘mum’ and the ‘daughter’. Exploring the role photography has in our families and our earliest performance of ‘family’ and of ‘gender’. By seeing how happy I was as a child, I am taking back the happiness I feel for myself and repairing my relationship with gender.