“To gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.”
Schroeder. J, in Barbara B Stern, Representing Consumers: Voices, Views and Visions (1998)
London: Routledge. Pg 208
My first review of this concept within the photography and film making was a little clouded by the inference of ‘power’ within an image, especially within Berger’s, Ways of Seeing (Al), which predominately looks at how women are viewed within art / photography from the position of a male viewer. Arguing that the act of spectating is masculine. However, this should be seen in the light of the patriarchal society we live in rather than an inherent difference in the desires of women and men to obtain power. There are also a lot of articles that debate the male gaze v female gaze.
Mcgowan’s description of Jacques Lacon’s Gaze theory (McGowan), presents it more as an object (a objet petit a) , a device used to allow the viewer to become immersed in the scene rather than a mere spectator.
“The gaze is a blank point— a point that disrupts the flow and the sense of the experience— within the aesthetic structure of the film, and it is the point at which the spectator is obliquely included in the film”.
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Therefore, at it simplest form it means leaving space within an image to allow the viewer to become involved, are they interacting with something within the image, or outside of it?
In Elina Brotherus’ interview she also spoke about liking to show the back of a person in the image, because it invites the viewer to look around the image without having to engage with the person, she said that having to engage eye to eye with the person in the image, could be aggressive. http://weareoca.com/photography/elina-brotherus-student-talk/
both McGowan and Berger use Hans Holbein’s painting: ‘The Ambassadors’ as an example of how artists have used ‘the Gaze’ to bring the viewer into the scene. It hints on how there is something going on outside of the image and the viewer has to physically move to understand what it is and therefore, viewing the image is not a passive act of spectating.
Types of Gaze:
| The Type | Course Description | My understanding / possible examples |
| spectator | the look of the viewer at a person in the image. | seeing the person without them seeing you |
| Internal | the gaze of one depicted person at another within the same image. | Why are they watching them, do we agree with that or not? who is more interesting the watcher or the watched. |
| Direct Address | the gaze of a person depicted in the image looking out directly, as if at the viewer (through the camera lens). | the subject directly connecting with the viewer, almost as if the photographer doesn’t exist in the middle. |
| The Look of the Camera | the way the camera itself appears to look at people depicted in the image (the gaze of the photographer). | |
| Bystander | the viewer being observed in the act of viewing. | feels like being caught out, trying to take a covert picture |
| Averted | the subject in the image deliberately looking away from the lens. | someone who doesn’t want you looking at them |
| Audience | an image depicting the audience watching the subject within the image. | put the viewer in the role of the audience, joining others who want to view the subject |
| Editorial | the whole ‘institutional’ process by which a proportion of the photographer’s gaze is chosen and emphasised. |
Mostly aimed at portrait images, however an object could also take on the form of the gaze, i.e. a bench overlooking the sea.
In terms of using ‘the gaze’ within images that are ‘windows’, employing the right gaze might influence how the viewer understands the meaning of the scene.
References:
“6. The Rule of the Gaze | Photography Composition Tutorial.” Compofoto.lluisribes.net, compofoto.lluisribes.net/en/rule-of-the-gaze/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
Al, Et. Ways of Seeing : Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. 1972. London, British Broadcasting Corporation, 2008.
ALDRIDGE, ALAN. “Book Reviews.” Work, Employment and Society, vol. 14, no. 2, June 2000, pp. 415–416, 10.1177/0950017000014002021. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
Lutz, Catherine, and Jane Collins. “The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic.” Visual Anthropology Review, vol. 7, no. 1, Mar. 1991, pp. 134–149, 10.1525/var.1991.7.1.134. Accessed 19 Nov. 2019.
McGowan, Todd. “OpenAthens / Sign In.” Ebookcentral.proquest.com, 8 Mar. 2007, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3407567.. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
Sassatelli, Roberta. “Interview with Laura Mulvey.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 28, no. 5, Sept. 2011, pp. 123–143, 10.1177/0263276411398278.
“The Power of the Gaze.” VISUAL WITNESSING, visualwitnessing.weebly.com/the-power-of-the-gaze.html#:~:text=In%20film%20theory%2C%20the%20gaze. Accessed 13 Feb. 2021.