Through the eyes of others
Through the eyes of others examines the ways we become vulnerable in the gaze of other people, and how these relationships affect identity and self perception. In this body of work, I photographed over 70 women over the course of one year in some of the cinemas in Vienna, Austria. The inspiration originally emerged from Hollywood’s silent film era, which was largely female run, and the idea that gestures and expression can tell a story without dialogue. It is set in an environment of screens and audiences to highlight the idea of scopophilia, but instead it is a female subject in the gaze of other women. In cinema, women have always been highly sexualized by male viewers and creators. I wanted to portray women together, non-sexual and their uncanny naked bodies explore the potential to signify primal emotion and reveal the vulnerable in the human – to bare oneself completely in front of another. Pictured, they hold each other, they turn away, they carry one another, they observe. The power of looking and identification, with compassion and curiosity rather than power, is essential to this film-still inspired journey into the complexity of relationships.
Emma Hartvig
https://www.emmahartvig.com/through-the-eyes-of-others
http://www.emmahartvig.com
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