![]() Indeed Newton ironically plays with this contrast, by replacing models with dummies, or maybe with models entrapped in their artificial make-up, as to eliminate the “human defect”. They are masks of themselves, as though the distinction between the mannequin and the model became blurred. They do not smile, they do not let themselves to be led, but rather they seduce, they manipulate and exploit their powerful beauty to make us their preys. Models, hidden under their merciless distance, are immune to seduction, never subjected to passion. Nudity affirms itself in every picture: eroticism and sensuality exude from every picture. The atmosphere is filled with a noir feeling and boasted luxury.Ĭolour instead bursts into the images of Sleepless Night: bright and mighty, as to highlight the perfect geometric syntax of colours, shadows, lights and forms.įinally in the last rooms: Big Nudes, where tall, cruel and confident women flaunt their naked body in an inaccessible distance. In White Women nudity and provocation break through into the glossy world of fashion. They are Erinyes entrapped in graceful bodies. Three series of photographs are alternated in the neat and silent rooms of the palace, and the spectator becomes a solitary victim of mute and daring glances from provocative female figures whom loom before him and terrify him. In the magnificent atmosphere of Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, these women are greeting us, liberated from social constrains – thanks to the cultural revolution of the ‘60s: powerful, manipulative, seductresses never been seduced. If his teutonic women are still gazing at us from walls where they are hung, none of the dresses they were wearing is remembered instead. A fashion photographer who leapt over the boundaries of the prêt-à-porter, to let the meaning of nudity arises within the glamour of fashion. Helmut Newton is all this, and even more. A portraitist of the inner female nature? Certainly. ![]() ![]() An Analysis of the Politics of Representation promotes a discussion of fashion iconography within gender and media research.A voyeur? At first it seems so. By engaging critically with the representation of the female body and how meanings are mediated between producers and viewers, 'In Search of the Female Gaze: Women as Practitioners of Fashion' Photography. French feminists Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous are also of great influence in this thesis, as well as Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. As a foundation to my argument, I draw a parallel between the depictions of women in film studies and in art history, taking in consideration the discursive fabric of theorists such as Laura Mulvey, John Berger, Mary Ann Doane, Linda Nochlin, Rosalind Gill and Rosemary Betterton. A central idea of this paper is to emphasise that femininity is a social construct and to present the manner in which the female gaze eschews its conventional stereotypes. Additionally, through a descriptive approach, it intends to showcase fashion photography as a vehicle to debate gender and sexuality within patriarchy. ![]() The aim of this paper is to explore the underlying meanings behind traditional representations of women in the fashion photography milieu and to evidence how fashion photography mirrors culture, thus carrying symbolic value and ideological codes. ![]() 'In Search of the Female Gaze: Women as Practitioners of Fashion Photography' uses the imagery of photographers Helmut Newton, Miles Aldridge, Deborah Turbeville, Corinne Day and Maisie Cousins as case studies in order to investigate the nuances between the way men and women look at and photograph women. It incorporates a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, embracing feminist and psychoanalytical discourse and semiotics. This thesis examines the female gaze in conjunction with fashion photography. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |