The Gaze of Photography

Anthropology of Media ANTH 2301 The Gaze of Photography The idea of the gaze was created in the 1970s by academics of film to investigate the ways in which viewers interact with other people's representations in visual media and the gazes of those who are portrayed in them. The goal of this theory, called gaze theory, is to understand what happens when people see people and events through the prism of the media. In particular, two essential components of the gaze are critical to this comprehension. First, the subject(s) of the picture—the person or individuals being stared at—are not aware that the observer is there. The stare is intrinsically voyeuristic due to this ignorance; it is similar to an unidentified person peering through a window into a house and watching the residents without their knowledge. The observer, or gazer, has an omniscient viewpoint and is completely aware of what is happening, but the people being observed are unaware of this observation. This dynamic also creates a psychological power dynamic in which the watched is significantly controlled by the watcher. This skill shows up as the capacity to closely examine, evaluate, and assess each person in the picture. The observer has the ability to adjust the viewpoint, manage the viewing environment, and decipher the picture for a variety of objectives, including education, entertainment, or critique. In her influential article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," published in 1975, British film theorist Laura Mulvey used the idea of the gaze to create a feminist criticism of cinema studies. Mulvey popularised the term "male gaze," which characterises how males view women in both visual media and day-to-day interactions. Beauty culture in Western Europe and the US perpetuates a power dynamic that is ingrained in society structures by positioning women as objects of admiration for men and other women. Mulvey contended that women are influenced by media portrayals to see themselves from the perspective of people, especially males, who judge their desirability and appearance. This phenomena shows that a woman's self-image is mediated through the male gaze, rather than experiencing her selfhood directly. Consequently, her self-perception is moulded by her belief of how men view her, resulting in a sense of self that is constantly impacted and limited by outside opinions. This relationship feeds a vicious cycle of self-objectification in which women internalise the male gaze and start measuring their own worth against its expectations. Therefore, the male gaze is a ubiquitous force that influences identity and selfperception, not merely a manner of gazing. The idea of the gaze has been useful in studying sociocultural power dynamics outside of feminist cinema theory, particularly those related to colonialism and imperialism. The goal for dominance and conquest during the colonial era prompted the creation of tactical perspectives on foreign cultures. An imperial gaze was fostered by European colonists through a variety of media and image-making techniques that appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This gaze cast non-Western peoples as the objects of observation and Europeans as the observers. Colonisers used visual tools like surveys, maps, and documentary photography to examine, classify, and control the lands and peoples they came across. The imperial gaze was an active instrument of oppression and control rather than just a passive act of observation. Europeans created narratives that defended their imperial aspirations and perpetuated prejudices by recording and portraying non-Western peoples in certain ways. Colonialized peoples were frequently shown in these portrayals as foreign, backward, and in need of European rule and education. Throughout this time, a great deal of visual documentation was created, which helped to solidify and maintain the power structures between colonisers and colonised people, ingraining these relationships into visual culture itself. The imperial gaze's legacy is still present in modern media, especially in magazines like National Geographic. The colonial gaze is still present in this magazine, which has long centred on portraying cultures and peoples from throughout the globe, frequently via the lenses of Western photographers. It has been said that the pictures and narratives in National Geographic reinforce a voyeuristic and unequal power dynamic between the Western spectator and the non-Western subject by exoticizing and othering non-Western individuals. This modern-day expression of the imperial gaze highlights how colonial visual practices continue to influence contemporary media and emphasises the significance of critically evaluating the creation and consumption of these pictures. Thus, gaze theory offers a potent framework for comprehending the intricate relationships among identity, representation, and power in visual culture. It demonstrates how seeing is never neutral and is instead infused with several levels of meaning and power dynamics that influence how we see the world and engage with it. Scholars may question the injustices that are perpetuated by visual culture and reveal the underlying mechanisms that control it by looking at the manner in which gazes are created and used. To sum up, the notion of the gaze, which was formulated by academics of film throughout the 1970s, provides a critical perspective for analysing the ways in which audiences interact with pictures and the power relationships present in visual media. The gaze, which is defined by the awareness of the spectator and the unawareness of the subject, produces a voyeuristic dynamic that forms a power dynamic in psychology. This ability shapes how the picture is interpreted and used by the viewer by enabling them to closely examine, evaluate, and judge the viewed. The male gaze, a notion developed by Laura Mulvey, emphasises how women are viewed as objects in visual culture, which contributes to self-objectification and a mediated self-image. Furthermore, the imperial gaze—which has its roots in colonial visual practices— continues to shape how non-Western peoples are portrayed in the media today, perpetuating past power disparities. Thus, gaze theory sheds light on the complex relationships that exist between gazing, power, and representation in visual culture and provides important insights into how these relationships affect how we see the outside world.