Gender, Gaze, Otherness & Photography

To gaze is to look steadily and intently, especially in admiration, surprise or thought.

Three perspectives:
  • the person behind the camera
  • the characters within the representation
  • the spectator
Why does gaze matter?
  • power relations
  • impulse to gaze
  • inequality --> links to male gaze (Laura Mulvey) - women presented as objects of male pleasure vs female gaze
Gender
"the state of being male or female"
Feminist art and history emerged in the 1960s.

Otherness
"the state of being different from alien to social identity of a person and to the identity of the self."
us vs them
The 'other' becomes the spectacle, the unknown, the weird.
source: google images


Diane Arbus
  • She took photos of things people hadn't done before
  • She was criticised for being controversial

Sarah Maple
  • Artworks that challenge notions of identity, religions and the status quo
  • She uses female characters that 'exist to serve men' and shows character's intelligence instead --> empower
source: google images

She uses Disney Princesses to empower women but also become an idol for the girls in order to show them how powerful women are and that they are not weak, but intelligent and can achieve their dreams and become what they want.








source: google images
Nan Goldin
"drag queens"

  • She presents her subjects as people rather than as "others" --> she humanizes them
  • Exposes LGBTQ community and she was criticized for that

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