Photography Presentation Outline

Slide 1: Have class discuss what Gender, Gaze, Otherness and Photography means to them

Slide 2: Define each

Gender: Traditionally seen as something biological but more recently this has been challenged
by the idea that it has become a reflection of one's cultural and social identity
Gaze:This makes me think of both Laura Mulvey & Judith Butler. Mulvey focused on the ‘male
gaze’, which focuses on how men look and ‘fascinate’ over women within the media who may
be represented sexually. Butler focuses on the feminine gaze which is pretty much the contrast of
the male gaze, instead leading men to be gazed upon in a sexual fashion. J
Otherness: Relating to Stewart Halls reading, this could be interpreted as anything out a the
social norm or something that doesn’t follow a social guideline, subverting stereotypes in the
process.

Slide 3: Quick summary of week 4 readings

The Spectacle of the Other - ·

● Stuart Hall investigates various stereotypes especially regarding the representation of

black people, masculinity and sexuality. He also explores the origins of the stereotypes
and what they mean.
● We represent people and places that are different from us with a representational
practice, which we call stereotyping
● Difference matters because it is essential to meaning: without it meaning could not exist
Meaning depends on the difference between opposites.
● Binary oppositions are also open to the change of being reductionist and over-simplified-
swalling up all distinctions in their rather rigid two part structure.
● Richard Dyer- Stereotyping reduces, essentializes, naturalises and fixes ‘difference’,
stereotyping deploys a strategy of ‘splitting’, Strereotyping tends to occur where there are
gross inequalities of power

Robers/Azoulay -Azoulay focuses on the placement and effect of a photograph in a social

setting. He talks about the functions of the photograph, for both the photographer, the
photographed and the spectator. This places a photograph on a wider scale, evaluating its effects
for all audiences.

Photography’s ‘actants - Roberts John’s reading focuses on the recent changes in photography,
it talks about the more socially englobalizing dynamic theory and history of photography. In the
reading he mentions that an image is never “possessed” by the photographer and that the
historical space left by the photographer allows for the spectator to interpret the images on their
own social understandings

First Photographer - Diane Arbus - introduce photographer - DOCUMENTARY STYLE

Diane Arbus was an American Photographer, who was most famous for taking photographs of
marginalised people, from dwarfs, to transgender people. This made her photography a focal
point of controversy in the 1940s and 50s. She was the first American photographer to have
photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale, a huge milestone. She is best known for her
intimate black & white photos. Luckily, Arbus was raised in a wealthy family which meant that
she was able to pursue her artistic interests. Despite committing suicide at the age of 48, today
her works are still on show at galleries like the Metropolitan Museum & The National Gallery of
Art.
Show images of Arbus
Photo 1 - This could be considered quite heartwarming and innocent, as the subject of the photo
is evidently happy and willing to be photographed. Considering the cultural period of when the
photo was took, most of Arbus’ audience would understand the photo to be presenting the idea of
‘otherness’, of someone who would be considered abnormal.
Photo 2 - Following the same style of the first photo, this one also highlights the idea of
‘weirdness’ and human differences. In relation to my reading for gender, gaze & otherness,
Robert Azoulay provides interesting viewpoints on ‘photography’s social relation and empathic
function’. It can be argued that Arbus seeks to evoke reactions out of her audiences with her
unusual photos, whether that be an empathetic reaction or a reaction of repulsion. Perhaps Arbus
is “variously contesting the notion of documentary practice as an objectification of the “other””.
Although Arbus focused largely on photography, her work explores the idea of the ‘other’. But,
would we say Arbus’ work is objection of the “other”? This is something to think about within
Arbus’ work.

Slide 4: Lee Miller - introduce photographer

· Lee Miller was a female American artist who refused to be defined by her gender, beauty or
age.
· Millers photographic style combines techniques and formal qualities of Surrealism, such as,
carefully manipulated framing to force new perspectives, and the unusual juxtaposition of
objects and concepts.
· Miller's bohemian circle, particularly in Paris, was hedonistic and free in its attitudes to
money, sex, marriage and respectability.
· A lot of her work focuses on the binary opposition of men versus women.
· During World War II, she became a highly praised war journalist for Vogue. She covered the
Liberation of Paris, London blitz, Buchenwald’s and Dachau’s concentration camps.
· having access to intimate feminine aspects of the war, giving her a unique insight into the
untold story of women’s lives during wartime.

Slide 5: Lee Miller - show images that describes/shows each of the definitions+mentions
something from readings

PHOTO 1- Photo shows destruction of the war contrasted with a smartly dressed women
demonstrating a sense of opposition and empowerment. The women stands tall imitating a sense
of power infornt of the destruction. The deep focus allows us to see all the detail in the
background enabling us to see the juxtaposition Miller is connoting. The idea of gaze could be
suggested to be seen through the women as the focal point of the image however the fact she is
not dressed in a overtly sexual way demonstrates Miller’s use of otherness as the woman is seen
as a symbol of power not for the male gaze.

Photo 2: This is a photograph of Miller herself in Hitler’s bathtub it is one of the most well
known images of hers. The connotations of this image is highly symbolic She had worn the
boots, now parked neatly on the mat, when she walked with speechless horror through Dachau
concentration camp earlier that day. It was as though she was signalling the end of Nazism by
washing off the war - and doing so in Hitler's bathtub. Although, the image may be seen to draw
in the male gaze the connotative meaning bhind the image demonstrates a sense of otherness as
she is a woman challenging the authority of a man.

Slide 6: Nan Golding - introduce photographer

An American photographer, her work often explores LGBT bodies, moments of intimacy, the
HIV crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her influence comes from early exposure to tense family
relationships, sexuality, and suicide, Goldin’s older sister commited suicide. Her later career was
influenced from living and working in New York City, Berlin, and Paris and her sexuality. Her
most notable work is The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986)

Slide 7: Nan Golding - show images that describes/shows each definitions +mentions something
from readings

PHOTO1 - This photograph is a large colour photograph of two drag queens known as Misty and
Jimmy Paulette. Goldin Photographed them close-up, sitting next to each other inside a taxi. The
drag queens stare directly at the camera. The cameras flash has illuminated the heavy makeup
and shiny clothes. In the image the blue wig, big heart shaped silver earrings, fake breast add to
the “gender” and “otherness” context of this image
PHOTO2
Large color photograph of the artist staring directly at the camera. INTENSE red clood in the
white of her swollen left eye mirrors the shade of her lipstick. She has photographed herself
against a piece of dark wooden furniture and a white embroidered curtain that appears bluish in
the artificial night-time light. The dark shadows behind her head indicate the use of a flash bulb.
As a photographic print, this image exists in an edition of twenty-five. It marks the end of a long-
term relationship and a particular period in the artist's life and provides the emotional climax of
Goldin's slide show and book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It also appears in Goldin's more
recent slide show series of self-portraits titled All By Myself 1995-6.

For a number of years I was deeply involved with a man. We were well suited
emotionally and the relationship became very interdependent. Jealousy was used to
Goldin's photographs, of herself, her lovers and her friends, have a diaristic function.

Slide 8: Sarah Mapple - introduce photographer - CONTROVERSIAL STYLE

Sarah Maple is an award winning visual artist known for her bold, brave, mischievous and
occasionally controversial artworks that challenges notions of identity, religion and the status
quo. At just 33 years old, Maple has already been awarded the New Sensations Prize. Her
inspiration originates from being bought up as a Muslim, surrounded by cultural diversity
through her mother and father that had mixed cultural backgrounds. Her art explores the
crossover of identity and culture which makes her photography daring and thought-provoking.

Slide 9: Sarah Mapple - show images that describes/shows each definitions +mentions something
from readings
Photo 1 (Smoking cigarette) - This photo could be considered to be very controversial, as the
black and white photo features Maple wearing a burqa and also smoking a cigarette. Although
Maple is not highly religious, this element of religious props connotes to audiences that Maple is
providing a social commentary, willing to explore diverse issues. In relation to Roland Barthes
theory of Studium & Punctum, Maples photography explores the idea of punctum, which can be
defined as the object or image that jumps out at the viewer within a photograph. In Maples
photography, this could be the hijab. Some may argue that the hijab is a form of oppression and
others a form of expression. In this instance, i think Maple is using the hijab as a prop to express
her familial background, in which this prop acts as the punctum of the photo.
Photo 2 - Maple is an interesting artist as she mainly photographs herself, making statements
within her photographs. As her photos can be seen as expressing feminism, the use of herself as
the ‘model’ could connote her passion for the style and form of her own photography. The direct
eye contact with the camera aswell as the medium shot provides a statement of ambiguous
identity to the audience, with Maple exploring her own cultural identity. It is also a vibrant photo
compared to the previous photo, as this photo can be seen to have more vitality and vibrancy to
it.

Slide 10: Dorothea Lange - introduce photographer

American documentary photographer born in New Jersey and photojournalist, best known for
depression-era work for the farm security administration (FSA). Lange’s photographs humanized
the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary
photography. Lange died of esophageal cancer on October 11, 1965, in San Francisco,
California. Three months later, the Museum of Modern Art in New York
FROM READING ”Take one of Azoulay’s examples—Dorothea Lange’s well-known portrait of
an American migrant mother from 1935 (Migrant Mother). This image is cannot be seen as
Lange’s own account of her subject (the pitiful conditions of Southern US migrant workers in the
1930s), or to that of the mass media (the tragic face of the Depression), historians , or the subject
of the photograph herself, Florence Owens Thompson (who thought the photo did not reflect
who she once was as a person, and as such an image that should be withdrawn from circulation).
It can be argued that each of these positions is a partial account of what the photograph signifies
to each of its ‘actants’, which means the photographer, the photographed, and the audience,
under given conditions at a particular time. In other words it perpetrates a greater violation than
the violation produced by the initial encounter. “

Slide 11: Dorothea Lange - show images that describes/shows each definitions +mentions
something from readings

PHOTO1 Dorothea Lange took this photograph in 1936, while employed by the U.S.
government’s Farm Security Administration (FSA) program, formed during the Great
Depression to raise awareness of and provide aid to impoverished farmers. In Nipomo,
California, Lange came across Florence Owens Thompson and her children in a camp filled with
field workers whose livelihoods were devastated by the failure of the pea crops.

PHOTO2 Oklahoma” suggests, this child was one of many displaced and relocated during the
economic Depression and drought of 1936. The ragged clothes falling off the scrawny body, the
uncombed hair, the grim background. This black and white photo and the texture of the image
adds to how the viewer looks at this photo
Slide 12: pick one of the photographers and show a new picture and have the class
1. Guess what photographer took the pic

2. Describe and explain the meaning behind the image using definitions - gender, gaze,
otherness