to gaze implies more than to look at it signifies a psychological relationship

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

Nanc

y

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.