The Female Gaze
The images in The Female Gaze stem from the desire to seek a different perspective: to create work that explored and challenged my own vulnerabilities, while attempting to portray the male figure in a way that is sensitive, genuine, and unshackled by societal expectations. Once the project was underway it became evident that it was impossible to avoid the culturally imposed male/female dynamic that I was exploring and inadvertently pushing against: the taboo of a woman photographing the male nude. The body is viewed through a lens that emphasizes humanity and intimacy: the seen and the shadow, the visible and the felt, the public and the private - components of human nature that are universal and transcend gender, culture and epoch.
“I can think of numberless males, from Bonnard to Callahan, who have photographed their lovers and spouses, but I am having trouble finding parallel examples among my sister photographers. The act of looking appraisingly at a man, making eye contact on the street, asking to photograph him, studying his body, has always been a brazen venture for a woman, though, for a man, these acts are commonplace, even expected.” - Sally Mann
