The Gaze

The Gaze

Photography and the act of looking

5-week assignment – presentation

·         Subject becomes an object

·         The photograph allows us to study or stare at a person without either partly feeling uncomfortable. Society deems it as ‘bad manners to stare’.

·         Who is watching who?

·         Is the subject aware?

·         How do we know if the subject is aware of being photographed or not…

·         ‘photoface’ a difference face when a camera is around.

Aware but unguarded.

A good example of photoface is in an episode of ‘friends’ when one of the characters chandler can’t smile and he’s having his photo took with his wife as an engagement image to go in the paper however as soon as the camera is out he pulls a strange face and looks really awkward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2joUFlCdPE

Marilyn Monroe – May 6^th 1957

Richard Avedon.

"For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that's—she did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop. And when the night was over and the white wine was over and the dancing was over, she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone. I saw her sitting quietly without expression on her face, and I walked towards her but I wouldn't photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no."

You can gaze at her but no eye contact but it shows a side to her that many images hide.

Corinne Day

Corinne Day is another photographer that photographs her models in a gaze or stare of some sort.

When I saw this portrait I instantly fell in love. I find it remarkable how this image managers to conjure up feelings and emotions. A mixture of dreaminess and serenity, ‘interwoven with a strong, unshakeable sense of dread.’ I like how her strange, alien gaze creeps into the back of your mind when you stare into her eyes. Its like all your vision blurs and all you can see is her eyes and It really makes you wonder what she is thinking and why she looks so confused and dazed.

My Gaze....