There are variations on the different types of gazes which exist but the following 7 encompass the main/standardised types:
The Spectators Gaze: The gaze of the viewer at an image/photograph of a person/animal/object
The Intra-Diegetic Gaze: The gaze of one person/animal/object at another within the text.
The Direct (or Extra-Diegetic) Gaze: The gaze of a person/animal/object looking 'out of the frame' as if at the viewer.
The Look of a Camera: The gaze of the film maker/photographer.
The Averted Gaze: Those represented avoiding the photographer's gaze or another person in the texts gaze by looking elsewhere.
The Editorial Gaze: The institutional methods of choosing photographs for editorial purposes.
The Gaze of a Bystander: A person watching another person view an image/text. If documented this produces a photograph within a photograph.
Example: In portraiture the gaze employed often by the person/animal within the text is that of the The Direct Gaze, in which they look into the camera, or in other words: at the viewer. Fazal Sheikhs photograph below displays this type of gaze but also the Intra-Diegetic Gaze, as the girl on the left stares at her sister. In this sense all aspects of the photograph are encouraging the viewer to look at the young child on the right, as her eye-contact with the viewer is reinforced by her sister who is also focusing on her. Another gaze which could be said to be at work here is the Non-Western Subject Gaze in which a non-western person looks into the camera/at the viewer, at another subject or into the distance as if to communicate something to the viewer. This is often accompanied by an incomprehensible facial expression which allow for emotions to be projected onto them by the viewer. This is true of a lot of Fazal Sheikh's photography.
The Other
Groups often classified as "The Other"
- Non-Western subjects - as Western people are often the ones photographing due to better technological and financial situations. This type of photograph was often thought of as outlining power structures and the asserting of western authority, but perhaps more often in current society, to highlight sociological issues in the non-western countries and to encourage help from the west. John Berger describes the more explicit images of this type of "other" as spawning "image fatigue" in which the western audiences become immune to the distress highlighted in these photo's.
- Child subjects - Photographers are adults, and there is a lack of understanding between adults and children, and so this type of photography is used a means of comprehension. Their lack of power in this relationship and their supposed innocence makes them an interesting subject to depict. Mary Ellen Mark often photographed youths and children in the modern day. The photograph below provides the rhetoric of the impacts modern society on children, and the idea of growing up too fast. The young girl in the background appears innocent and simple in contrast to the girl in the foreground who is wearing makeup and a bikini, blowing smoke into the camera and holding a cigarette with her arms folded.
This displays this "other" (i.e. children) as reenacting their counterparts (i.e. adults) lifestyles, and evokes shock. Another example of a group deemed as "The Other" reenacting their counterparts lifestyles can be seen in the photography of Seydou Keita, in which non-western or Malian subjects dress-up and use props (such as ties/suits/glasses/fountain pens etc.) to symbolise their modern/western aspirations
- Outsiders of Society - Those who form a small part of society, and who are thus rarely taken into account and depicted. This could be the subject displaying photographs of their own society and their separation from this, or the photographer portraying those separated and stigmatised in society. However, this could also refer to people/photographers who are completely new to a society or culture, and who photograph to highlight underlying issues that go un-addressed by those who live there. Diane Arbus is a classic example of a photographer who portrays those at the fringes of society. Her photograph below displays a transvestite in 1966, a type of person who was rarely documented seriously at this time.
The Photographer Robert Frank is an example of somebody who travelled outside of his community to photograph in a new society. In this sense he was "The Other" as his was the minority. He is french but travelled to the USA to photograph American society, creating a book entitled The Americans in 1958, which provided a compilation of these photographs. The Photographs placate the viewer as a stranger, as indeed Frank was during this time and in this article (http://rising.blackstar.com/eye-on-image-making-robert-frank-redux.html) he says that this comes about from “years of photography, where you walk about, you observe, and you walk away, and you begin to be a pretty good detective.” I love his photograph below, entitled Chasing Light as each different type of person is framed in a box, suggesting their separation despite all sharing the same society. The children and the afro-american man appear to be the two reaching out to the photographer, both in their physical gestures and in their facial expressions; in both they are trying to communicate something. They portray the two types of "Other" aforementioned: children and those that were on the fringes of society, and thus this photograph and so there are 3 types of Other: the photographer, the child and the outsider at the time.
The Ethics of Representation
Representing subjects is complicated as it involves a moral and ethical responsibility on part of the photographer. Some, however, choose to disregard this in favour of a signigicant photograph. There is also, however, an ethical responsibility on part of the viewer in terms of self-regulation, or those who display certain photographs such as institutional bodies, in terms of censorship. I have previously mentioned Berger's notion of "Image Fatigue", and how distressing images are ameliorated due to the sheer number of them that are disseminated across media platforms. This suggests the ambiguity around what is ethical/unethical as people continuously view photographs differently. Some may argue that the ethical nature which these "Image Fatigue" photo's are trying to encourage the viewer to adopt is somewhat contradicted by the act of documenting rather than helping. For example, the photograph below by Kevin Carter depicts a young starving boy, during the Sudan Famine, crawling towards a United Nations food camp kilometers away, whilst a vulture looks on seemingly awaiting her death. This photograph won the Pulitzer Prize, but caused a lot of controversy as people questioned why Carter didn't step in and remove the boy from imminent danger, after its printing in the New York Times in 1993. Carter reportedly took the photograph and then left the scene, and so NYT was unable to state the fate of they boy to the interrogating public. However it was later revealed that Carter was travelling with the UN and was only allowed to stay at this particular feeding centre for 30 minutes. He had never seen famine before and so documented many shots of the children suffering, he then chased the eagle away who had flown down as food was being delivered from the UN plane. Ultimately the photo incited help for Sudan but many people questioned its reliability (i.e. whether it was staged) and Carters ethical stance with regards to it.
Connotation and Denotation
Denotation: What can literally be seen in the photograph/image
Connotation: The more complex meanings that can be inferred within the photographs such as cultural signifiers, codes of colours/lighting/mise en scene and the representations of the subjects featured against the social/historical/ideological context.
Denotations vs connotation of this Martin Parr photograph:
- A baby is balanced precariously on a womans lap being changed over the waters edge: This could connote the lack of care/bad parenting in society at the time. The baby isn't covered up and looks slightly red - it also isn't protected by the mothers arms as she doesn't grip him to prevent him from falling.
- The water is litter-filled and murky: Society is wasteful, disrespectful and polluted, with a further lack of care (following on from mothers lack of care with baby)
- Children are bathing their feet in the water: being polluted by society, becoming part of this pollution. Also highlights a lack of good parenting again. The casual approach to parenting
- A man is holding a pram next to the baby being changed - the man is cut out of the frame perhaps suggesting the lack of presence or significance of men in their child's life or the lack of authority that the man symbolises - perhaps reasons why society is the way it is.
- The location is industrial, with concrete pavements: The opposite of picturesque, represents the ugly side of British society.
- The day is bright and sunny: to perhaps contrast against the ugly setting. Evoking questions as to why people are in such a horrible location on such a nice day. Underlines class and financial situatios (working class with lack of money. Location is free and nearest they have to a beach)
- A black couple stands in the middle background of the photograph looking in the direction of the children washing their feet: portrays a role reversal in which the black couple have more power over the other white people in the photo and are perhaps looking at the children in shock due to them bathing in the filthy water.
However this photograph could also suggest the empowerment of British society as they "power on" in the context of the economic downturn/recession. They may have little money to travel to nice locations but they make the most of it by bringing their families along, dipping their feet in, and coming together in the location. The mother appears to effortlessly change her baby, with the quiet confidence and nochalance of somebody who done it a thousand times before and the baby does not appear to be frightened or upset when balanced on her knee.
Studium and Punctum
Roland Barthes came up with these two terms in the 1980's in the book Camera Lucida. Studium refers to the cultural, sociological and ideological context of the photograph, which could cause a viewer to further understand the messages and connotations or "preferred readings" that could be featured within a given photograph.
The Punctum referes to a symbol included in the photograph which initiates a emotional response from the viewer, and is the point in the photograph which most peoples attention is drawn towards.
I hope to include all of these theories in my project to some extent: perhaps some more overtly than others. The subject of "The Other" and "The Ethics of Representation" stand out to me the most in terms of my street photography/performed reality idea's and hopefully I will be able to include these in my proposal.
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