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I sometimes struggle to explain why it is that photographing women helps me with my main work, which is writing about violence. But it does, and it has a lot to do with 'gaze' and male gaze in the sense that Laura Mulvey talks about it.
I am often working on ancient texts, including biblical texts, and I recently came across this in the story of Samuel's birth (Samuel the Israelite leader who anoints first Saul and then David to be king). Samuel inherits the leadership role in Israel from Eli, whose sons are identified as unfit to succeed their father not least because they abuse the women who come to make offerings at the place of worship where they officiate: "they slept with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting".
Samuel's story starts with his mother, Hannah, who can't have children. She is praying to herself and Eli sees her:
It's cinematic writing, visual storytelling. I wouldn't have seen that if I didn't work on screenplay and photography. I might have picked up on the repeated reference to the doorway into the place of worship, but I wouldn't have seen that juxtaposition of the shots: Hannah's mouth moving silently. Eli's watching eyes. The focus in the text on her mouth moving, and then the re-emphasis, on 'lips'. The Hebrew Bible tells stories with astonishing subtlety in a handful of sentences, and you could easily miss completely this picture of Eli himself as a sexual predator. Praise be for cinematographers and photographers and praise be above all for the women who consent to work with them.
I am often working on ancient texts, including biblical texts, and I recently came across this in the story of Samuel's birth (Samuel the Israelite leader who anoints first Saul and then David to be king). Samuel inherits the leadership role in Israel from Eli, whose sons are identified as unfit to succeed their father not least because they abuse the women who come to make offerings at the place of worship where they officiate: "they slept with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting".
Samuel's story starts with his mother, Hannah, who can't have children. She is praying to herself and Eli sees her:
Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. .. Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard.
It's cinematic writing, visual storytelling. I wouldn't have seen that if I didn't work on screenplay and photography. I might have picked up on the repeated reference to the doorway into the place of worship, but I wouldn't have seen that juxtaposition of the shots: Hannah's mouth moving silently. Eli's watching eyes. The focus in the text on her mouth moving, and then the re-emphasis, on 'lips'. The Hebrew Bible tells stories with astonishing subtlety in a handful of sentences, and you could easily miss completely this picture of Eli himself as a sexual predator. Praise be for cinematographers and photographers and praise be above all for the women who consent to work with them.
A book of portraits?
and ..
and
A book of portraits? The simple ones, of women against a plain background. What do you think?
I'll do something with a print on demand place, like Blurb or Saal, to start with. If you'd be interested, you can PM me here. In buying it, or if you're a model, in shooting for it. I'm open to ideas for titles, too. In my head the book has always been The Sovereignty of the Self .. see my previous journal for the arty bullshit. But that is too arty-bullshitty a title. Women Standing Against A Wall is a bit long and plain. Against the Wall and Shot .. you can see my problem. Must. Learn. To. Be. Concise.
I've updated my personal
I may be gone some time ...
Well, not that bad, I hope.
Surgery tomorrow, long recovery time, won't be posting anything for a while.
The sovereignty of the self
Arty bullshit about why I shoot nudes the way I do. It's about letting the self (the model's self) be sovereign.
The modern understanding of sovereignty, following Carl Schmitt, is 'he who is sovereign who can create the state of exception'. It's not the power to make law that identifies the sovereign, but the power to unmake it, or to set it aside. Giorgio Agamben calls that the creation of a state of non-Law (he shows it as the word Law with a cross through it). It's the basis of emergency legislation such as that which creates a Guantanamo, where the law against torture, or detention without charge, is suspended; Agamben shows the connect
On knickers and nicking .. part 2
You cannot have just beauty, apart from its embodiment. The beauty you are posting is not the body beautiful, it is an image. The map is not the territory. The body was necessary to making the image, and so was the work. The beauty in an image does not exist apart from the work and time that went into making it. It's the work you're stealing, which is to say, the money, often the income, of those who made the work. You are doing what the corporate world increasingly does, which is to deny artists the income that is due to them for their work.
If you post others' work without attribution then you're stealing the respect they are due for mak
© 2017 - 2024 Gairm
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A very interesting and unusual point of view. Now I remember why I started watching you.