Male Gaze

[ZUU]

I'm currently doing a paper on the Male Gaze and was wondering if anyone can suggest any more examples of photographers where I can strongly relate the Male Gaze to? Currently I'm writing on Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Edward Weston (His fun house mirror series and his nudes), Philip Lorca diCorcia, Steven Klein, Glen Luchford. If anyone can think of any more strong examples of power play via the male gaze that I can then research further, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

You ought to look at Robert Mapplethorpe if you want to see some significant examples of the Male Gaze - he renders your concept of it highly problematic and you need to deal with that.

 

[tomalophicon]

You ought to look at Robert Mapplethorpe if you want to see some significant examples of the Male Gaze - he renders your concept of it highly problematic and you need to deal with that.

The Male Gaze on Male Gays.

I had no idea what the Male Gaze was so I had to look it up.

 

[Steve Smith]

I had no idea what the Male Gaze was so I had to look it up.

I still don't know what it is and I'm not sure if I should look it up!


Steve.

 

[Tony Egan]

I think Cindy Sherman had a lot of fun with the concept of the male gaze. I wouldn't exclude female photographers.

 

[cornflower2]

What about some of the portraits by Irving Penn and Phillipe Hallsman?

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I think Cindy Sherman had a lot of fun with the concept of the male gaze. I wouldn't exclude female photographers.

Definitely don't forget Ruth Bernhard - one of the best human figure photographers ever.

 

[cowanw]

Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden

 

[tomalophicon]

Jan Saudek

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

For a truly extreme example, Joel-Peter Witkin.

 

[CGW]

Nobuyoshi Araki.

 

[MDR]

Jean Loup Sieff's Nude work

Most Playboy Photographers with the exception of Bitesnich, in the category a little perverted male gaze we have David Hamilton. Steven Meisel's Opium Add (one of the best nudes in advertisment history imho) in the category banned but beautiful.

Dominik

 

[CGW]

For old school verve, there's Sam Haskins.

 

[Tony Egan]

Ralph Gibson. Also Harry Callahan's lifelong photographic relationship with his wife is worth exploring.

 

[dpurdy]

How about Alfred Steiglitz's multiple loving portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I think the male gaze is used widely in advertising. In modern consumer culture, there's power in consumption. Check out car magazines any periodicals that involve male power. The ads try to appeal to wimpy men that want to consume their way to the modern definition of powerful manhood.

 

[naeroscatu]

Check out Jeanloup Sieff

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

What about taking the question outside the predictable genres?

Is the heroic vision of the landscape an example of the male gaze? What are its alternatives?

Is there a male gaze in architectural photography, and what would it be opposed to?

How about still life or commercial product photography, which is all about desire, acquisition, possession, power, and other potentially gendered categories?

I think the interesting way to approach this would be to think about what qualities gender the gaze, and then "test" the theory against kinds of photography that aren't about sexuality in any obvious way.

 

[TSSPro]

I kinda agree with David A. in the above post- try and take the male gaze outside of the objectification of women. (However, it sounds like you have already cultivated a lot of sources that address that area, so you probably will stick with that area.) The camera as an instrument of the male gaze can be applied to landscape, still life even awkward family photos. All can be argued as being intrinsically male in their implementation. The dominance over nature, a historically feminized space, ownership of objects producing social class status, or elevation of status through ownership, the evidential proof of dominance or ownership over the family unit in a patriarchal society through family photos taken by a male family member.

These are all possibilities. There is and has been a lot of work in the area of the male gaze in the last 30 years since Laura Mulvey's essay "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema."

Also, dont forget that you can differentiate between the camera being the instrument of the gaze and the male figures within an image creating their own gaze. Characters that were created by and for a white male audience for the purposes of scopophelia.

Hope that your paper comes out well-

 

[Tom Nutter]

How about Arney Freitag or better yet Bob Guccione....or Jeff Dunas or Robert Farber.....Or Ralph Gibson......the list is endless.....even Annie Leibovitz for that matter....or Garry Winogrand or Lee Friedlander......depends on your argument for sure. two more...Herb Ritts....Albert watson.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

If you want an example who bridges the categories discussed above (consumption of flesh vs consumption of goods), an interesting photographer to try and dissect would be John Dugdale - he photographs his friends in the nude (male AND female) , and he also photographs his collection of Victorian-era china and glassware and other odds-and-ends of things he's collected. He also does nude self-portraits, which would make for an interesting subject to analyze from that perspective.