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pheebs03-blog · 7 years ago

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How has the use of photography sexualised women?

Sexualisation of the female body is a common theme within our society, and therefore extremely important to me as a young woman. It is defined in the Collins dictionary that ‘sexualisation’ is ‘to sexualise someone or something or to consider them in a sexual way’ (2017). I personally became interested in the sexual portrayal of women when I moved to an all-boys school, from an all-girls school. I realised that the way I dressed and presented myself was more important now I was surrounded by the opposite sex. Therefore when choosing a project that’s personal, I chose the aspect of my life which constantly affects me, and other young women on a daily bases whether those around us are conscious or unconscious of this act.

To me the sexualising of women has a lot to do with people, especially men, stereotyping women. In that the main focus in my opinion appears to be the manner in which men perceive how women present themselves. With this in mind I would like to explore how and why women are sexualised and how we can alter a photograph to change the view ‘as people’. Exploring this will allow me to be able to alter a photograph with the aim to focus on the beauty within the subject of the photographs, instead of only on the ‘outside’ by this I mean the physical appearance. I feel being born as a millennial and being surrounded by constant social media showing off and exploiting women of all ages, professions and ethnicity is playing a big part in attracting me to this topic.

To this end want to use high contrast within my photos such as is explored within Film Noir. The casting of shadows and the increased brightness of the lighting comes into play in order to allow me to explore and express nuances within my topic. I would like to better understand how stillness within the background can enhance the narrative within the frame and highlight the beauty of the shape and form of women in subtle yet strong image.

In researching the historical context it appeared that women lost their legal status around the 1800’s when they got married. Once stripped of their legal status a husband was legally allowed to decide where and how to live, to beat his wife, and even lock her up if he wished too. These ghastly actions, by men, which were deemed as normal in the 1800’s have impacted our society and treatment of women drastically. I find this historical ‘norm’ challenging for me as it appear that men stripping women of their power is no different to men stripping women of their dignity, of their clothes, and disrespecting them in this present day.

In literature a light into a world of women through the words of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, appear to glorify their lives as young women. Emily Bronte however in contrast to published works, wrote to Jane Eyre recounting her life as a strong willed orphan whom grows up with her arrogant, violent cousin and his sisters, in the custody of her mean disapproving aunt. She grows up and still voices her opinions of a woman, however she is in the shadow of men throughout the whole book. Reading these books today have an unexpected effect upon our minds of today, not realising the treatment of women is constantly being spoken about, expressed within these books and standards of treatment constantly get better and worse throughout the years.

Ernest Jones Bellocq, Eve Arnold and Norman Parkinson are two such photographers who captured images of celebrities; and royalty such as Marilyn Monroe, and Barbara Mullen in magazines such as Vogue. Their fashion portraits and shots demonstrate high contrast and black and white due to their time of work during the 50’s where the film and movie films dominated the style of photography. Film Noir is a type of cinematographic film style which makes by a specific mood and was popularly how detective or thriller films were made in the 1940’s/50’s. Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay on the male gaze ‘argues that traditional Hollywood films respond to deep seated drive known as ‘scopophilia’: the sexual pleasure of looking’ which can be seen in the iconic film Rear Window (1954).

Ernest Jones Bellocq is a prime photographer to study because of his specific focus on women such as prostitutes in the early 1900’s. I find the composition of his work interesting, as the subject is mostly positioned in the centre, just off centre of the frame, allowing the eye of the viewer to focus on her body. The chosen clothing of a vest and socks- which then highlights her body shape, and her profession however not necessarily herself as a person . The lighting focuses primarily on her alone, not the background; the use of this highlights her vulnerability.

Erwin Blumefield, another photographer which I’d lie to focus, study and contrast their work to Bellocqs’ because of the difference in their work. He’s a fashion photographer who worked in the early 1900’s for many fashion magazines such as Vogue. He uses subtle colour and dramatic framing to present his pieces, such as an actual photo frame, or shadows over the main subject of the photo. His fashion photography interests me because of his use of props and focus on colour which is so different to Belocqs’ black and white, high contrast shoots.

I looked into articles regarding the psychology of nakedness, to see why looking at a female body might trigger something in the brain to make the photographer position them different ways, because of it being a bare body.

These notes from LiveSciene which is written by psychologists such as Kurt Gary Joshua Knobe and Paul Bloom explain the details behind the human mind explaining what happens when they look at the female naked body. An experiment carried out found that when men glance at ‘sexualised’ photographs of women they show reduced activation in certain parts of the brain which exhibits certain mental states. They look into how removing a piece of clothing can change one’s feeling or way of acting- it can significantly change how the mind looks at certain things, therefore how they react and interact with the subject.

A second experiment carried out shows a photo of ‘attractive’ men and women who both had highlighting features. People were asked questions as to how the subject- X, would be capable of ‘self-control’ or ‘acting morally’. The end result exhibited that people felt that the less skin on show the more agency (control) they had in life, in relation to their actions. Whereas the more skin on show in the photos, people perceived them to have less agency in life and over their actions. These results express society’s views on the presentation and reflection of this on a person’s character and

life.

I want to portray the style of the black and white high contrast within my photos, and the layout of film and experimental images I can make with film would work well with my project, the time period in which I’m looking at and how they took the photos back then in contrast to today. Deeper into the meaning behind the photographs, I want to explore the psychological reasons for looking at women in different ways, what effected that and what has effected that over the years to the present day.

Firstly I explored the photographer Anton Beleodchenko, a body scape photographer. He frames the female body in unusual positions to express and explore their physicality. His high contrast and lack of colour present the figure in the simplest form as a stunning object to view. I wanted to understand the female form in its nakedness and vulnerability before exploring it within the nature of clothing. I used a studio to set up my blank background and florescent light box to focus purely on the subject. I wanted to convey the female body as a sculpture. The body is a piece of art, and viewing it solely as a beautiful object in front of you contains true emotion behind it from the photographer and subject. My outcomes express the natural beauty within women using selected lighting and empty space. Having taken inspiration from Belovodchenko I used minimalistic backgrounds to present the subject as a piece of art for those to be free to view. My appreciation of the female form comes through my photographs by the composition and use of lighting.

I went onto study the photographer Eve Arnold for she photographed many icons such as Marilyn Monroe, and she captured and framed women in a certain way which showed her respecting them. Her work indulged an intimacy between the camera and the subject. For shoot two I was inspired by how she captured the subject in minimal clothing which is developed from my shoot one. I used my Cannon 100d to shoot both of these, along with one coloured film and one black and white to keep my theme of the 50’s and Film Noir through my shoots. I captured my subject by the side of a lake, to use the idea of the Marilyn Monroe at the beach photos, in a public setting, and having my subject in minimal to no clothing. I wanted the subject not to be aware of the camera capturing their personality and presentation of themselves, forcing them to be who they really are. I then went onto edit my digital photos on Photoshop and increased the contrast and the brightness to create harsh tones to put across the black and white film Noir look of the 1950’s. The high contrast and black and white also accentuate the shape of the female body, and the creases and muscle forms of her legs to highlight parts of her body.

In contrast, I used coloured film to accentuate Arnold’s use of media. Shoot three allowed me to explore Arnold’s Monroe shoot, presenting her in denim on the set of misfits. I enjoyed using coloured film immensely and presenting them in groups of three or four photos allowed me to convey the whole story. I also experimented with my angles for I didn’t want my subject to dominate the image, but however I want her to be the full focus on the photo without taking over the whole frame

My fourth and fifth shoot was inspired by Norman Parkinson; a fashion photographer during the 1900’s who used women in positions and clothing that captured their beauty in interesting ways through their clothing. I used my subject in a camel tie coat to be in keeping with the style of the photographer and also looking at how the coat affects their body shape towards the camera and viewer. I edited my frames to direct attention towards the figure by selectively decreasing the brightness within the background, and increasing the brightness within the foreground. I then also used a subject in the setting of rural farm land, on a small path, wearing vintage clothing to keep Norman Parkinson’s style. I wanted to take fashion photography inspired poses during the shoots, focusing on the elegance of the subjects and how their clothing compliments their bodies and the shapes, highlighting their shapes and creases through the clothing like the skirt and the jacket, being typically a male item of clothing, I wanted to use it to cast equality and bring to attention the subject, as a woman without being obviously showing off her body.

Moving on from the previous shoots onto my sixth shoot looking at the fashion icons being photographed, I looked at the higher end of the spectrum. Moving on from this, I explored the high-end fashion magazine, Vogue as inspiration. The photographers known as Bruce Weber and peter Lindbergh were inspiration for this shoot. I shot with my Cannon 100d and used lighting from one side of the subject, whom was then positioned centre of the frame or to just off centre to allow the empty space around her to engage the viewer within the gaze of the subject. This gaze allows her to emit the power and challenging force form within her, expressing the stand up for women for power. The suit jacket with high heels shows the unnecessary contrast between women and men within society and how much power they have within the world. I decided to edit the images in colour emphasise the black within the frame.

I then took the concept of high fashion into my own hands, inspired by shoot seven; I wanted to develop them into a contemporary shoot, using minimalistic background to express a woman’s power. These photos still embraced the stereotypes by using the drastic loss of clothing and selected lighting. Using a florescent light box and flash the lighting allowed the shadows to immerse the subject into darkness yet simultaneously highlighting her body as beautifully and simply as possible. These photos also highlight women’s power by wearing the suit jacket and top hat, portraying the strength within women in comparison to men and stereotypes within society. My outcomes show beauty and strength within the use of subtle colour balance to create a faint sense of colour, accentuating the delicate feminine stereotype.

Within shoot eight with the same theme of high fashion magazines I focused on the glamour side of the women in magazines. By using the studio and a florescent light box on one side of the subject I was able to capture isolated images of the woman, focusing on the details of her body and her clothing, a faux fur coat, a symbol of glamour throughout time and the history of fashion. Using the coat as the only clothing allows the sexual attraction of women comes through, just as the advertisements within magazines such as vogue try to achieve. The outside shots allowed me to capture the subject within the frame, expressing the thought of glamour not being the only significant aspect in her life. Magazines promote glamour; therefore I captured that aspect of their message but developed it to promote other parts within life with mystery within body language.

I then took photos from all of my shoots and incorporated them to create a mixed media piece to explore ways in which I can present my photos. I took a man’s shirt and used image maker to apply my images to cover the shirt. I then asked male and female subjects to be photographed in the shirt, showing the dominance and the victim behind the images on the shirts.

Whilst exploring the sexualisation of women through photography I have been able to explore the topic through time, fashion and mixed media. I have learnt the ways in which a photograph can present a subject depending on their clothing, lighting and angles. All of the elements to the medias way of sexualising women are down to the root caused from back in the early days of paintings, the books. The books written of women in domestic roles, which then go on to develop through time to become more rebellious within their presentation of themselves through clothing and actions such as smoking.

I’ve appreciated the works of many photographers during my exploration, and understood the leap in which women have taken through the past century. Women have become stronger and grasped more power, which I hope to have conveyed in my shoots towards the end of my project, allowing a chronological order to my project. The understanding of the female body at the beginning and reading around the feminist authors such as Laura Mulvey and taking inspiration from Anton Belovodchenko was vital in starting to focus on women. To then go onto include the different clothing and how it affected it links with the chronological order of our society and history.

I hope to have highlighted many positives and negatives of sexualising women in photography through this project. I wished to show people who women really are, and to use the elements within a photograph to express these emotions, attitudes and themes through these components such as lighting, composition, empty space and props.

I feel to a degree I have successfully portrayed women beyond their appearance and more to do with who they are, as independent and nuanced human beings. In some aspects I have grasped the stereotypical understanding of women and altered it to convey their strength and power as a woman, by the use of my lighting, clothing and editing skills. However I could have gone further in developing this using irony within my setting and use of props and bystanders.

Bibliography-

Ernest Jones Bellocq- https://fraenkelgallery.com/artists/ej-bellocq

Glamour photography- https://www.headshotlondon.co.uk/glamour-photography/

Vogue- http://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/ten-creative-radicals-share-perspective-change-google-pixel-2

Heen Dyden- https://helendryden.com/

Women - power, sexuality- https://www.facebook.com/glamour/videos/10155697310365479/

Objectifying women as a community- https://fstoppers.com/originals/photographing-women-sexual-manner-are-we-all-guilty-objectifying-women-112940

Bartley, P (1996) 1800’s History of Women changing through time- Women changing through history

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/states-of-undress-viceland-series

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edith-sitwell

http://www.vogue.it/en/fashion/cover-fashion-stories/2017/11/06/the-state-of-undress-vogue-italia-november-2017/

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/10-iconic-fashion-photographers/

American embassies- curating art, FAPE- https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/audio/curators.html

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