The portrait series “A Visual Contradiction” (formerly Not Conceptual. Life) portrays individuals who contradict normative gender roles using a gender-specific visual language.
Art print edition
per motif 5 pieces, each in 2 sizes: 40x60cm and 80x120cm (plus each size 2 artist prints). Material: „Photo Lustre“ by Canson.
Find all suggested framings here.
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Catherine Lieser: » In my project “A Visual Contradiction”, I photographed people who contradict normative gender roles by using gender-specific visual language.
When we see a photograph of a woman or a man, we don’t just see a female or a male human, but a constructed and structured representation of the concept “woman” or “man”.
The term “gaze regime” was largely coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault, who describes in his work “who is allowed to see whom, under what conditions, and how power is exercised as a result.”
A gaze regime thus structures social norms and cultural conventions and stabilizes power relations. This also applies to the portrayal of genders and gender roles.
An early feminist analysis was conducted by the British film historian Laura Mulvey. She developed the idea of the “male gaze” and argued that Hollywood films, in particular, are structured from a male-heterosexual perspective and portray women as objects of desire.
I asked myself if there is a gender-specific language and researched a total of four motifs that depict the same gender using the same visual language over decades.
For each motif I created a series, so that the visual language of the gaze regime becomes recognizable.
In order to visually contradict the gaze regime, I portrayed people who stand in contrast to the constructed gender narratives, using traditional visual language itself. «
Motif No. 1
A visual tradition of depicting men.
My photographical quote with queer Drag Queen Kelly Heelton.
Motif No. 2.
A visual tradition of depicting women.
My photographical quotes with interdisciplinary and queer artist Julakim and non-binary Play Temple host Gili Jala.
Motif No. 3
A visual tradition of depicting men.
My photographical quotes with queer drag queen Jazz Cortes.
Motif No. 4
A visual tradition of depicting women.
My photographical quotes with trans rapper Saphira, non-binary singer-songwriter Josephinex and queer author Nazli Karabiyikoglu.
Exhibtions
The series was exhibited, among many other places, at the European Month of Photography in Berlin 2023 within a grouph exhibition of the Berufsverband Freie Fotografen und Filmgestalter e. V. (BFF) and at the Kunstverein Familie Montez in Frankfurt am Main.
Four portraits are part of the Art Collection of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment.
