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
Nancy
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.
