Draft:Charlotte Jensen

Charlotte Jansen is a British Sri Lankan journalist and photographer. Jansen is a writer for The Guardian, editor at large for Elephant Magazine alongside writing for press such as Financial Times, Elle and the British Journal of Photography.

Books
Jansen has four published books, each on artists and photographers from across the world.

Girl On Girl
Girl on Girl was Jansen's first collection, where she writes descriptions of images included alongside selecting the material included. Girl on Girl focuses on 'the female gaze' a concept based around what women see in one another. Jansen explains the female gaze to be corrective and natural where as the male gaze proves to be toxic; the female gaze is admiration without sexualisation, within this collection the female gaze is explored through use of nudity and how the naked female body should be appreciated. Nudity and the female gaze as Jansen writes on go hand in hand, Nudity and Normalising nudity across different cultures and how through this we find joy in our nude bodies amongst women. The collection includes work by photographers such as lebohang Kganye with their family portraits, Iiu Susiraja working with the body and uneasy humour and Cheat Barto photographing female eroticism. Jansen believes a woman taking a photo will always be a political act, this gives some insight into what the female gaze truly is.

Awkward Beauty
Awkward Beauty is a a collection of paintings created by artist Lucy Jones, co-written with journalists and writers Philip Vann and Tom Shakespeare. It was the first collection to showcase Jones's landscape paintings and self-portraits. The collection includes 100 colour palettes through twenty-five years worth of art. The collection is published by Elephant. Jansen's writing within the collection discusses the power and strength through disability and societies view on differences. Jones herself painted her self-portraits through empowerment through her own disabilities, portraying a broad emotional range and venerability. Jansen focuses heavily on the nature of these paintings and the beautiful insight they give into Jones's view of the world.

Broken Fingaz
Broken Fingaz was a collection of photographs showcasing the art of street and city artist group named 'broken finger'. Jensen writes about the artists and their popular pieces in London. Broken Fingaz formed in 2001, creating 'X-rated super sex' work in the form of a vintage sign look. One of their most famous London murals is of a naked woman with a panda next to her, another piece named 'motor-bike skeleton sex' was described as Jensen as colourful and controversial. Jensen's texts through these collections show her ongoing passion for liberation around nudity; she writes within this collection the passion she felt for the art as it was created around women, sex and cultural celebration. Jensen explores the history of the group, the art they have created for musicians such as Blink 182 and their journey up to date.

Photography Now
In Photography Now, 50 fifty pioneers define photography for the 21st century. Jensen describes the world to be saturated with images, now more than ever due to new technology and social media, however, this doesn't answer the question of what photography can truly do. This collection brings together the works of 50 photographers from around the world, through their work Jensen explores what photography means in post-modern society and the potential photographs have to tell stories we have already experienced and to make new stories; she explains the downfall however to be that photography has become a reflex and questions whether it takes away the desire to live in the moment. Regardless of this implication however Jensen writes on her love for the art and the power photos have to portray language, identity, race, gender and sexuality. Jensen summorises this collection with the statement photography is 'tethering us to reality as events spiral out of control'

Journalism
Overall, Jensen isn't only a journalist and photographer, she's a creator with strong political views and a talent for incorporating them into her work, from her collections based around the female gaze, art surrounding disability empowerment and liberation through nudity.

Podcast
Her most recent work, a podcast named 'Dior Talks' also explore further what the female gaze truly is and how it can empower women.