Week 20: Allure.

The gaze is a subject that seems too bold to address. It is definite. It is a reminder that surveillance is an art rather than just a means of record. As a lot of you readers will know, John Berger has accurately gone over the female and the male gaze in his book and program Ways of Seeing.

"Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at."

A famous quote that I'm sure most of you have heard before, but this links in well with the idea of surveillance. We are constantly being surveyed, it may not be for such superficial things as CCTV and candid cameras, but people look at you and you look at people. This is an on going cycle of surveillance. The gaze creates this and we are normally to busy in our everyday lives to notice the eyes around us and to notice that our own eyes are frequently entering that cycle.

Thanks, once again.
Dan.




What is a portrait, but a mask? A mask that triggers this concept of surveying. You could survey this image and try to look past the mask, but it won't work. It will not work.

Song listening to right now: Coward of the Year - Aesop Rock