to Gaze implies more than to look at
it signifies a psychological relationship
Several key forms of gaze can be identified
• the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person
• the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the image
• the direct address to the viewer: the gaze of a person depicted in the image looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer
• the look of the camera - the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people; less metaphorically, the gaze of the photographer.
In addition, there are several other types of gaze which are less often
mentioned:
•the gaze of a bystander - outside the world of the image, the gaze of another individual watching the spectator in the act of viewing. Have you ever watched someone in a museum?
• the averted gaze - a depicted person’s noticeable avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist (and thus of the viewer) - this may involve looking up, looking down or looking away
• the gaze of an audience within the text - certain kinds of popular televisual texts (such as game shows) often include shots of an audience watching those performing in the 'text within a text';
It is useful to note how directly a depicted person gazes out of the frame. A number of authors have explored this issue in relation to advertisements in particular.
In his study of women’s magazine advertisements, Trevor Millum distinguished between these forms of attention:
•attention directed towards other people; •attention directed to an object;•attention directed to oneself; •attention directed to the reader/camera; •attention directed into middle distance, as in a state of reverie; •direction or object of attention not discernible.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Charles Darwin
For I am the Queen Mother
Sadness
Mountain Nymph
The Echo
Alice
Boughton
Untitled
Unidentified
Unidentified
A Chat
Palmer
Instructor with Three Graduates with Diplomas and Geraniums
Southworth and Hawes
Woman in Floral Bonnet and Zig-Zag Dress
A Conversation Piece
E.J. Bellocq
Storyville Portrait
Storyville Portrait
Bill Brandt
Portrait of a Young Girl
Harry Callahan
Eleanor
Eleanor
Emmet Gowin Ruth and Edith
Nanc
y
Edith
Edith
Nadar
Self-Portrait
Woman in profile
Sarah Bernhardt
The Photographer’s
Wife
Irving Penn
Tennessee Williams
Three Rissani Women
Richard Avedon
Marilyn Monroe
Beekeeper
Uranium Miner
You are not simply taking a portrait. You are studying the way you look
at your subject, the way your subject is looking back, and the relationship you are establishing
between the viewer and that subject.
Top Related