THE HUMAN GAZE

She is not naked as she is;
She is naked as the spectator sees her.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing 

Feminists, psychoanalysts, and visual theorists among other thinkers have provided persistent commentary on the power derived by the act of looking upon a subject through the concept of the gaze (Berger 1972; Ettinger 1995; Foucault 1965; Freud; hooks 1992; Lacan 1964; Mulvey 1989.) The cis-hetero-male scopophlic gaze, wherein the viewer actively looks upon and concomitantly derives both power and pleasure from the passive female form, has been paid particular attention in critical discourse. According to this theoretical outlook, classical Western arts and the consumer capitalist mass media alike participate in the objectification of the female form, enacting a sort of violence upon these bodies and reflecting cultural values derived from a patriarchal system.

I set myself a challenge in THE HUMAN GAZE series: present photographic variants of the naked female form that do not invite the viewer’s scopophilic gaze. Through this ongoing series, I photographed a large number of naked models across the spectrum of multiple identity coordinates -- gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, ability -- whose bodies are situated along the spectrum of the female form.

In THE HUMAN GAZE the naked female form does not belong to the spectator. These bodies are not objects to be actively looked upon for the purpose of deriving power/pleasure. Rather they stand on their own as full subjects. The gaze is thus reclaimed by the female form and stripped of its patriarchal power. The unilateral act of looking by the viewer upon the subject is recast as reciprocal exchange between subject and subject. The bodies of THE HUMAN GAZE do not view themselves nude-as-object; rather they are fully human in their nakedness. The female form does not need the spectator to become anything; it does not ask for permission; it does not try to challenge. These bodies do not lack anything; they are whole; they are human.

info

prev / next

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·