Cheryle Galloway
Biography
Cheryle G. Galloway, born in Zimbabwe, is a US-based artist. After completing a BA in Communication Science, she was drawn to photography as a medium for story-telling and interpreting her experiences. Cheryle’s work was surrounding nature, streets and portraiture. During COVID, her work transitioned into self-portraiture, allowing her to tell more personal stories around issues of identity, gender and race. Some work from her self-portrait series exploring grief and loss, “The Stranger Who Was Yourself” was shown at The Brick Lane Gallery in October 2021. Cheryle loves the allure of being the unobtrusive observer in street photography, capturing quiet moments of intimacy, solitude and unspoken emotions, which go unnoticed in the daily tempest of life; an aesthetic she carries into her self-portrait work. Cheryle’s work has been shown in galleries in the US, UK, Scotland, Italy, Vienna, Germany, Spain and the Canary Islands.
Artist Statement
“A lot of the time, being a girl in this world hurts,” says Australian feminist writer, broadcaster and public speaker, Clementine Ford. We are informed during socialization, in subtle and not so subtle ways, that acceptance of our womanhood is conditional, based on narrow ideals of femininity. We are told what femininity is supposed to be and do and look like. Our value as women either increases or diminishes according to our size, skin colour, physical ability, economic status, biological sex and race. We are brought up to believe true fulfilment for women is becoming wives and mothers. We witness, and experience, men’s violence against women, the way our voices are silenced when we speak up; and, if we make it out alive, we know we are the lucky ones.
Society's constructed idea of femininity excludes, devalues, diminishes and dehumanizes us, affecting our self-concept and agency. American author, professor, feminist, and social activist, bell hooks, says, “Young girls often feel strong, courageous, highly creative, and powerful until they begin to receive undermining sexist messages that encourage them to conform to conventional notions of femininity. To conform, they have to give up power.”
In this series of images, I asked the question what if women lifted the veil of patriarchy, which as Thain Parnell says, is "concealing the reality of their oppression and normalizing their subjugation." If women eschewed the norms imposed upon us by femininity, which restrict and control us, if we embraced all the things society would have us believe are unfeminine? Who is she in her wildest dreams? How would she feel? How would she view herself and, more importantly, what would she do?
Country United States
Website https://cherylegalloway.com
