Re-Reading Edward Weston: Feminism, Photography and Psychoanalysis by Roberta McGrath
Cindy Sherman: Burning Down the House by Jan Avgikos
The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes the Example of National Geographic by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins
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ReplyDeleteRoberta McGrath lectures on photography theory and criticism at Napier University, Edinburgh.
ReplyDeleteRobert McGrath in Re-reading Edward Weston – Feminism, Photography, and Psychoanalysis, states there is no universal genderlessness of art. There is a lack of contribution by feminist art criticism to modernism. The task facing feminist practice is double-edged; to de-construct male paradigm's and to construct female perspectives. Masculinity and Femininity are determined socially, psychologically, and culturally, not biologically. Therefore the question for woman is not what woman is, but how she comes into being. Edward Weston and his second wife Charis Wilson claimed the inclusion of female models' faces would reduce a universal theme to a portrait of a particular individual; interrupt “aesthetic appreciation of beauty.” Formalist aesthetics of modernism never speaks of content. Castration is a threat posed by women, which can be dealt with in two ways: voyeurism and fetishism. Weston felt the role of women in his life was to stimulate him/fertilize his work. The denial of woman to look implies the denial of woman's access to the production of knowledge. Women are excluded from patriarchal discourse ironically through inclusion; work of women is included but men dominate and control it, for example producing work with no faces apparent. Feminist strategies to combat patriarchal dominance in discourse include inserting more women into the structure, usually resulting in simply more women photographers exhibited, and the refusal to contribute to patriarchal discourse. The latter simply constructs a parallel ideology; 'men' replaced by 'wmomen.' The task of feminists is ultimately to understand how woman functions within patriarchal discourse.
John Avgikos is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University.
In Burning Down the House, Cindy Sherman's photography is analyzed as it resides in the convergence of discourses, rather than in any one of them exclusively. Her sexually charged photos draw attention from many directions. Women feel there is no place for them in porn. When sex is made public rather than private, it changes in character: real vs unreal, representation vs real life. The problem with displaying sexuality as natural is the assumption that comes with it that there is a pure state of nature to get back to; prior to contamination. Sherman's representation of direct female sexuality reveals a desire to see the private and forbidden. What this has to do with female identity is widely interpreted. One is that it is an argument against cliches of traditional female glamor, with its crude coarseness. Another is that it represents the instability of female identity, but this means that woman “abhors herself” and this doesn't match up with the fact that Sherman is director and producer of her own visual dramas. Her porn pictures do not express self-hatred, but rather show the old-age designation of woman as inherently “monstrous.” Evoking castration-anxiety, the pictures' effect on women metaphorically represent what is typically displaced or repressed in them.
Catherine Lutz is an Anthropology Professor and Author. Jane Collins is a Sociology and Women's Studies Professor and Author as well.
ReplyDeleteCatherine Lutz and Jane Collins in the Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes – The example of National Geographic speak in depth of the many gazes that can be found in the photograph. They explore the significance of this “gaze” for intercultural relations. Many gazes can be found in any photo on National Geographic, the first talked about is the photographer's gaze. This is represented by the camera's eye; the structure and content of the photograph. The technology and conventions of photography force the reader to follow the eye of the photographer and see the world from his/her position. The second gaze is the magazine's gaze, which includes the editor's choice of article issue, picture selection, layout, and (most evident) the caption which directs the verbal vantage point on the picture's meaning. The reader cannot determine whether photographer or editor is in charge of the first two parts of this second gaze. The magazine reader's gaze invites the reader to dream of the meaning of the photograph. The reader can imagine a history to the story, and it's structure by his/her own cultural, subjective background. This gaze is also structured by the context of the reading; is it a high-end or low-end magazine? The fourth type of gaze is by the non-Westerner. How and where this subject looks shapes the message about intercultural relations. When this subject looks at the viewer, their acknowledgement of the photographer and reader either eliminates voyeurism or implies “open voyeurism.” The magazine's goal of creating intimacy between subject and reader contradicts their official goal of presenting truthful scenes from other countries. For example, a smile of a non-Westerner can portray them as approachable, whether this smile is natural or was conjured up. A non-Western subject looking at the viewer also implies accessibility to them. Historically, frontal portraits have been associated with “rougher” classes. Nat Geo editors select pictures on the basis of some notion about what the social/power relations are between reader and ethnic subject. When they look at someone within the frame, an idea about this other is read off their gaze. The gaze from a Westerner represents more explicitly than most the intercultural relations between the West and its global neighbors. The image of them being there validates that they were actually there. We identify with the Westerner in the frame. Therefore when they look into the camera we are distanced from the realness of the situation rather than immersed in it, in effect reducing voyeurism. The refracted gaze involves the foreign subject seeing themselves as others see them. The example given is of an ethnic woman looking at a picture of a look-alike in a magazine held by a Westerner. Mirror and camera are both tools of self-reflection. Mirrors most directly suggest the possibility of self-awareness. A common perception is that non-Westerners are cognitively immature. The academic spectator is the last of the gazes. All of the looks are ultimately filtered through our own gazes, subjectively.