The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes

In their article, Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins explore the gaze and all its dimensions through the examination of National Geographic photographs. The photos found in National Geographic magazines serve as a testament to high culture in Western society. They are snapshots into the world in the way American readers want to see it; the pictures are exotic, yet readable, always remaining within the boundaries of comfort. The authors describe the Western gaze through the model of self and other, also alluding to the self and other that exists amongst the division in sex.

The article explains the difference between open and illicit viewing, and the taboos that exist on certain kinds of viewing. Photographs serve to reinforce this taboo, while also working within the "regime of visibility" to create clear visual examples of the self and the other, the male and the female, the deviant and the non deviant, the civilized and the savage. The photo made it possible for institutions to study and in turn control the body more closely; it became a means of surveillance for the international power relations.

Photographs are physical manifestations of reaffirmations of the self. While reading this, I drew a parallel (however stretched this may sound) between the identification that takes place within the West through photo, with the way Aboriginals visually traced their myths through art (although they themselves don't consider it art). There is something about the physical, visual, documentation of identity which serves as a reinforcer, evidence that can be shared and viewed by a multitude of members of any given group or society. However, more than just serving to pronounce a sense of identity, the West's photo unconsciously manipulates the gaze of the other, which is the subject pictured, whether as individual, group, or setting. The photo can be seen as an expression of self consciousness, allowing the Westerner to see him/herself reflected in the eyes of the Other in a comfortable, familiar, and pleasurable way. The need to do this is the direct result of fear an anxiety; it is what constitutes our emphasis on the gaze. In order to counteract the acknowledgement that the subject pictured is the Other, due to the oppressive forces of the West, there must also be the denial of their Otherness, and a sense of affinity is created through the viewer's gaze.

The photograph is confrontational, often times even intimidating; however it is also appealing, visually pleasing, a form of high art, a highway to exotic culture. It provides an image that can be alienating, while maintaining itself as a source of entertainment because of the distance between the subject and the viewer. There is simultaneous recognition and suppression of the Other which take place within the National Geographic photos. Interestingly enough, our class discussion on feminist politics had a very similar relationship to the issues of sexism and racism. Subjects of oppression become "irrelevant", because their presence is too confrontational, too uncomfortable, too fear-inducing. Only when we see the oppressed, the marginalized, the Other, in a light that is comfortable for our viewing pleasure, in the nude rather than naked, do we feel good about it. Only then can we find it entertaining and comforting, when it's comedy in the case of racism, or pornography in the case of sexism. Incapable of facing our own fears, we dance around them, laugh at them, take some high quality pictures, maybe even make a movie about them: it's all very entertaining indeed!