The Voyeur and the Female body (Self)
My interest in photographing the body began with photographing other people's scars, tattoos, piercings, etc; things that were individual to them. Gradually I become more interested in photographing my own body. Part of this was out of convenience; I will always be an available model for myself. It also had to do with a sense of fascination about my own body, and how it looks when photographed. Now it has become an important aspect of my work that the photos are of me. They contain a per-formative quality, and the process of taking the photos becomes an important aspect of the work.
My goal with this work is to present ideas of voyeurism. Since I am taking these photos of myself, no one is looking through the camera while the photos are being taken. This subverts the idea of the male gaze and voyeurism. The male gaze, a term originating in the writing of Laura Mulvey, is the idea of creating images for heterosexual men to look at. I see my images as subverting that because I am allowing the images to be looked at and not creating them for the male gaze. I feel as though these images were created for my own gaze, for the purpose of myself seeing how my body looks in photographs, but also as away to present my ideas to others. The idea of hair is brought in to create a dialogue about femininity. These photos are taken in my bedroom, a private space where I am comfortable taking them. This further emphasizes the idea of allowing the viewer to be a voyeur of a private space and time. The fact that I am taking the photos of myself is emphasized by the contortions of my body that form when I create a pose in which I can still press the cable release button. I also become contorted when trying to pose in a way that will only show the viewer what I want them to see. Even though the poses are deliberate, I have no way of knowing what the images will look like, emphasizing the fact that no one is looking through the camera. Instead of being a passive subject seen through a camera lens, I am an active subject documenting my own body.
Some of these photos use photograms of hair on the images. The hair acts as a veil distancing the viewer, but also bringing up questions of how the idea of hair or lack of hair can be considered in reference to the female body. In some photos I am manipulating the hair that I am creating the photograms with. This manipulation of detached hair states that the hair is still mine and a part of me despite its detachment.
My Polaroid images create intimate views because of the small size of the image, and the softness of the image quality. They bring a warmness to my body of work, which consists of black and white prints and the Polaroids. I have also included Polaroid images of the detached hair. This expresses the hair as a personal part and aspect of the body, through the intimacy of the Polaroid image.
The presentation of my own body through photographs has been an interesting experience for me. I have become more and more comfortable with it and have discovered the ways to express the ideas I want to present through the use of my own body.