FORMS OF GAZE
Several key forms of gaze can be identified in photographic, filmic or televisual texts, or in figurative graphic art. The most obvious typology is based on who is doing the looking, of which the following are the most commonly cited:
- the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person (or animal, or object) in the text;
- the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the text (typically depicted in filmic and televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view shot’);
- the direct [or extra-diegetic] address to the viewer: the gaze of a person (or quasi-human being) depicted in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer, with associated gestures and postures (in some genres, direct address is studiously avoided);
- the look of the camera – the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people (or animals or objects) depicted; less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker or photographer.
In addition to the major forms of gaze listed above, we should also note several other types of gaze which are less often mentioned:
- the gaze of a bystander – outside the world of the text, the gaze of another individual in the viewer’s social world catching the latter in the act of viewing – this can be highly charged, e.g. where the text is erotic (Willemen 1992);
- the averted gaze – a depicted person’s noticeable avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist (and thus of the viewer) – this may involve looking up, looking down or looking away (Dyer 1982);
- the gaze of an audience within the text – certain kinds of popular televisual texts (such as game shows) often include shots of an audience watching those performing in the ‘text within a text’;
- the editorial gaze – ‘the whole institutional process by which some portion of the photographer’s gaze is chosen for use and emphasis’ (Lutz & Collins 1994, 368)
MALE GAZE
The male gaze can be thought of as the process of depicting women from the perspective of a presumed heterosexual male viewpoint. This reduces female characters to simply being a female body that is depicted for the visual pleasure of male characters and a male audience.
What is ‘gaze’ in photography?
In portraits, the ‘gaze’ describes the way the artist and sitter look at each other, and the way we as viewers look at the person portrayed. In exploring the gaze, we analyse: The sitter’s gaze: where the sitter is looking and what their expression is.
Good example of male gaze:
Examples of the male gaze are ubiquitous in film and include scenes where women are approached unsuspectedly by a man, slow camera pans, and tropes involving male heroes.
As Laura Mulvey, a feminist theorist, described in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, this conceptualisation of femininity has little to do with a female perspective. Instead, it is a product of the “male gaze” . Mulvey argued that when visualised, women tend to be portrayed as passive, fragile, and sexualised objects meant to be looked at and, consequently, used by the male spectator, who can be either present or implied . Using Freudian terminology, Mulvey explained that this “fetishistic scopophilia [i.e. drawing pleasure from just looking] builds up the physical beauty of the object [i.e. the woman], transforming it into something satisfying in itself ” . Accordingly, rather than an independent individual, a woman and her identity are constructed in the (audio) visual media as a consumable product designated to please the male spectator.
cindy sherman – artist reference
nancy honey – artist reference
laura mulvey, judith butler – blog post
MY INTENDED RESPONSE TO THIS:
- experiment with camera angles and how it can reflect the gaze/ perspective.
- female gaze
- focusing on the body and dance, specifically ballet
- show different angles and positions
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://denisavitova.medium.com/the-male-gaze-of-female-photographers-3a97eb3e1e30