IC w5 The gaze
- HildeMaassen
- Feb 26, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 15, 2020
In my current work, the gaze plays no major role. In earlier projects is does however. I mainly associate Gaze with photographing people unless it's about my own gaze.
Although in almost all cases photography is about looking, how you look, the look. And even if you set the camera for automatic photography, you do not look through the viewfinder and you only have to look at the photos when you actually select the photos. I do have a period in which I don't feel super good mentally and actually don't dare to photogarve openly. For those moments I came up with "methods" to still be able to take pictures. One of those projects is called 1.2 meters. This literally refers to the distance that I set manually on the camera. I set the rest of the camera to the aperture-priority mode where I usually go for the smallest possible depth of field. I will walk around with that. It has something voyeuristic to walk around that way; the camera is at hip height and I secretly take pictures. Even though I can't really point the camera, servants are observed that I would normally never photograph.
The cut-outs, compositions and frames are different because I have no real control over them. It helps me to look fresh at crops again; sometimes they are much nicer than what I would have done if I had the control.
Hilde Maassen, form series: 1.2meters.
The same goes for the series I make with people sleeping on the street. Usually those people don't sleep on the street for neits; they don't have a house to go to. It is often difficult to decide whether or not to photograph them. By photographing it you can show others through the photos that it exists. Photos make it more difficult to close your eyes to the problem. On the other hand, the fact is that these people did not give me permission to take or use the photo. I took the photos, not made them.
In the bottom photo, it was not the man but the dogs that made the photo. I have found that it is easy, for me, to talk to people about whether I can photograph their dog. That is almost always allowed and at that moment people do not mind that they stand up themselves.
I have a Noblex panorama camera that ensures that people become so curious that they just stand in front of the photo. I can also stand close to people without being aware that they are being photographed.
This photo, above, is that of my grandfather after he died and was laid out. I heard Paul tells in his presentation that people reacted strongly to the fact that he was taking photos. This was not the case here. My family thought it was very normal and also nice that I did it. Yet it feels strange and as if you are doing something that is actually not allowed. Still looking at this image brings back that feeling. But also the idea that by posting it on this blog I confront other people with it, the view suffers from it and that they may not be waiting for it at all.
So for me the gaze clearly has something to do with seeing but also - the possibility of being seen. It may be prohibitive, voyeurism, unheimliches, the gut feeling. On the days that I feel super comfortable, I like to photograph people. that is often accompanied by bacon, the exchange of a moment. I call it short social, meaningful moments without emotional obligations. These are moments that I keep in mind and that I relive when I see the photos or that evoke the image of the photo in my mind when I think back to the moment. The photo and the meeting are inextricably linked.
What if I'm not the only one watching. What if the whole world focused on one point? As happened in Berlin in 1989 at the wall. Are these photos of mine, do they show my gaze or are they symbolic, are they representative of an important moment in history?
Hilde Maassen, Berlin 1989
Just before I took this picture I asked my husband to look like a dog. Can you see that?
The following photos have been made for a jazz trio. She wanted to show how fun it can be when they play music. The people in the photo know that they are there to be photographed.
Fig. Hilde Maassen, Jazz trio.
In this weeks forum I reacted to images made by Len. Self portraits in which his top was naked. I responded to a response.
I am not a man but I recognize the unheimliches feeling of looking at a man's body. But that might have something to do with the age of the body?
I remember seeing the work of John Coplans in an exhibition, which for me was very much about the beauty of the aging body, or maybe the acceptance. It went with a book with I bought "Self Portraits" It was very easy for me to see through the abstraction and surreal that came from the work. The prints were, if I remember correctly, larger than the reality. They were almost sculptures.
Marrie Bot's book Timeless Love is also about acceptance, but she goes one step further. This series focuses on the domestic eroticism of ordinary people between 50 and 85 years old. Bot shows that the way they enjoy love and eroticism is not weird or dirty, but very natural. She wants to show that naked elderly are not frightening or scary. However, a colleague of mine recognized his baker and wife and that made it very personal and alienating for him. Marrie is literally the voyeurist here in the bedroom or bathroom together. Through the photos we also become voyeurists and I find these photos difficult to watch. I have the book in the cupboard and it never really came out. I have to ask her if I meet her again how she experienced this. At least she was of the same learning time as her models. I think that has helped her to make this series in this case.
Sources
BOT, Marie. 2014. Geliefden – Timeless Love. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Available at https://www.fotomuseumdenhaag.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/marrie-bot [Accessed 26 February 2020]
BOT, Marie. 2014. Geliefden - Timeless love. Rotterdam. Marie Bot
COPLANS, John. http://www.johncoplanstrust.org [Accessed 26 February 2020]
COPLANS, John.1990. Self portrait: hand/Foot exhibition Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam.
Comments