Gazing Woman is a photo series that depicts people as objects of sexual desire, in self-determined portraits.

The work reflects the „male gaze“ and adds sensual-sexual depictions from an explicitly female perspective.

It involves the people photographed in the process by letting them decide how to be portrayed. They are asked questions to which they respond non-verbally in front of the camera.

The people photographed were found within a period of eight months within Germany. They are from my circle of friends as well of their circles of friends and my private and profesisonal network.

Presentation at Chaussee 36

» As an artist I am interested in gender roles and social roles and how we as society create these roles and eduacte ourselves in these roles.

As for my project „Gazing Woman“ I asked: „How do we depict sensuality, sexuality and eroticism and who decides, according to which criteria, who is being depicted in what way?“

During my studies at film school @hffmuenchen I learned about the „male gaze“, a term that was first coined in the 1970ies  by film theorist Laura Mulvey. The term explains how heterosexual male movie directors depict women in film. They do it in a way that reduces women to their bodies and turn them into objects of sexual desire.

Since the vast majority of all visua media was and is still created by men, the answer to my question is: Men hold the authority to interpret physical attractiveness, how attraction between men and women works and also, what sexual orientation and what genders are made visible.

Besides the effect that the „male gaze“ visually pleases the heterosexual male audience it has more effects:

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1. It normalizes binary genders and heterosexuality.

2. It portrays men as superior, who are entitled to project their attraction onto a woman and that, if they remain persistent, women will give in to mens projection and bow to it.
3. It depicts women as submissive, who consider it desirable to be found attractive by men and to act accordingly and to strive for it.

As long as we are unaware of the omnipresence of the male gaze, we do not reflect on it. We accept these effects as truth about ourselves and the world we live in.

For my series Gazing Woman I would formally asked the people photographed: „Do you want tob e an object of lust?“,  „How do you want to show yourself?“.

I offered them an empty space for their unfolding: Proverbial and metaphorical, in the shape of a white studio.

They chose their pose, their cloths and even my camera perspective. I didnt project onto them and gave them back the power to interpret their own attractiveness. Each portrait is accompanied by a quote that provides additional insight into their personality and individuality, to make sure there is no objectification. «