Week 4 Photo Series "A Person(s) enjoying their day"

A Person(s) enjoying their day

1

 

Waiting at the bus Stop

2

Sitting on a Wall

3

Found some grass

4

Its going to rain soon

Description

    The photos show a person enjoying themselves in a city environment taking a journey around. Each photo is a still of this persons journey. From the start at the bus and ending at the stairs on a cloudy day. Each shot has them in a slightly off pose as though they are being watched by someone. Each shot has the insertion of a hand that dominates each of the photos. Said hand takes focus away from the central figure in the shot and towards this unseen figure. Said unknown figure disturbs the central figure into disgust. There are a few interpretations on the perspective of the photos: This is the perceptive of a camera being interrupted by another person(hand), this is the perspective of the hand looking at the central figure, or this a outside view observing both people (us).

Explanation 

    This photo series is a look at the male gaze as well as the oppositional gaze. Every photo appears to be a normal everyday occurrence any person would be doing. Yet, in each shot the photo is ruined by the introduction of a hand just near the edge of the photo. This disruption of a seemingly normal photo breaks the viewers attention away from the one being photographed. The person who is being photographed is visibly annoyed as well due to this unwanted intruder. They always look straight at the camera and possibly at the unseen figure. "...I remember being punished as a child for staring, for those hard intense direct looks children's would give grown-ups, looks that were seen as conformational, as gestures of resistance, challenges to authority. (Hooks, The Oppositional Gaz). The central figure does not look away or feign the want of the unknown figure but looks at them taking away some of their power. They in effect challenge this person and what they want.

    As to the male gaze it is a ever present force that effects everyone in society in some manner. Typically for women it is this pronounced want and desire of the stereotypical womanly figure that claim the minds of some men. Said gaze is represented by the unknown hand pining for the central figure. Each photo alone is just any environment you find in the city. Yet, with this unknown figure it is transformed into a place of discomfort and disgust. Most evidently shown in the third photo where in the person lays in the grass. This photo can be described in two ways as either a person laying in some grass or a person sexually eloping in some grass for the want of some viewer. "A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. She has to survey everything she is... Her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated" (Berger, Ways of Seeing, Ch 3). The male gaze would look over of the photos and see not a person with thoughts and opinions but an object that must conform to what they consider desirable.

    The power of the hand represents this unseen force that people are stalked by in everyday life. It could at any moment manifest it self and make it self real or stay a illusionary force that binds us all. "A man's presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies. The promised power may be moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social, sexual - but its object is always exterior to the man. A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. His presence may be fabricated... But the presence is always towards a power which he exercises on others " (Berger, Ways of Seeing, Ch 3). The power of the hand is there but so is the other person. They have their own agency and as such can push against this force. In each of the photos though the hand is there the person  is still there doing their life. There life is not entirely bound by this oppressively force.

  This project overall was inspired by Cindy Sherman. Her work of taking herself and making a character is what really inspire me. Though I don't have the tools to create such extravagant characters as her I still made due with what I had. As well I didn't do a exaggeration of a predetermined archetype/stereotype. Even so I played this angry character in winter clothing who would otherwise just be any other regular person if the hand was taken out of the photos. Just like Sherman I try to make it appear like a moment in time that could easily be played back or forward just like she does with her characters.