The Casual Vulnerability Of Men Photographed By Women.
Imogen Cunningham, Roi Partridge on Mt. Rainier, 1914. Courtesy: Imogen Cunningham Trust
More than a hundred years ago a woman set up her camera by a mountain lake and photographed her friend as he paddled naked. In the resultant gelatin silver prints the young man appears ethereal - positioning the male subject as both beautiful and desirable. This photoshoot of Roi Partridge by Imogen Cunningham on Mount Rainier was one of the first instances of a woman photographing a man – and possibly the earliest example of the female heterosexual gaze in photography. Cunningham would go on to marry Partridge the next year. [1][2]
Cunningham wasn’t alone either. Her contemporary Margrethe Mather also attempted to capture the beauty of the men around her. In Billy Justema in Man’s Summer Kimono c. 1923, she concentrates on the torso of fellow artist Billy Justema as he holds the material of a kimono across his crotch. [3] In another photograph, he bears his neck for her as he breathes in, eyes closed. [4] And yet after the work of these two photographic pioneers the male subject appears to retreat from the historical narrative.
Margrethe Mather, Billy Justema in Man’s Summer Kimono, c. 1923
Margrethe Mather, Untitled - Portrait of Bill Justema , ca. 1922
Look through any photography anthology and you’ll immediately be able to identify the male heterosexual gaze, as coined by Laura Mulvey in the 1970s [5], where the male photographer is seen to reduce the female body to a sex object. From almost the moment the camera was invented the subject of the female nude was carried over from more traditional fine art disciples, but despite the presence of female photographers its reverse was and remains fairly rare.
Lesbian photography, in comparison, has a clear lineage, from Alice Austen and Gertrude Tate in the 1890s [6] through Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore in the 1920s [6], Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davis in the 1960s and 70s [7] … Donna Gottschalk [8] to Zanele Muholi [9]. Looking at Cunningham’s photographs of Partridge and Mather’s of Justema it seems like a female heterosexual gaze should have developed – considering how many women are attracted to men.
Instead, straight female photographers turned inward - photographing themselves or each other. Think of Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Donna Ferrato, Jo Spence, and so many others. These women photographed the bruises men had left on them, mimicked the poses men put them in, captured the aftereffects of their neglect and brutality – but they did not photograph the men themselves. [6] The male figure in feminist art is an unseen threat, he is plural – the patriarchy – but the individual man himself is absent.
In Ways of Seeing the art critic John Berger writes, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object.” A few pages later he continues, “This unequal relationship is so deeply embedded in our culture that it still structures the consciousness of many women. They do to themselves what men do to them. They survey, like men, their own femininity.” [10]
Turning the camera on men is therefore a significant act of reclaiming subjectivity. Fortunately, a few examples do exist. Take Corinne Day’s England’s Dreaming (George Sunset) from 1993, which shows a young man watching the sun set. He lies on the ground, back to the viewer, feet slipping out of his shoes. [6] The casual vulnerability of the image is reproduced in Day’s photographs of male musicians and models at the time, including Beck, Pete Doherty, and Damon Albarn. [11]
Corinne Day, England’s Dreaming (George Sunset), 1993 © Corinne Day Estate
Corinne Day, Damon Albarn – Blur, 1998 © Corinne Day Estate
Or consider Laura Pannack’s series Young British Naturists from 2010, an entire collection of photographs of naked men going about their day-to-day business in a naturist – that is nudist – resort. They lean against cars smoking, float on their backs in the water, sit on the edge of their beds… but in almost none of the photographs do they seem relaxed. It’s as if they are unused to being in front of the camera, and suspicious of what it might reveal about them. [6] [12]
Laura Pannack, Float, 2010 © Laura Pannack
Laura Pannack, Untitled – Young British Naturists, 2010 © Laura Pannack
Recently the work of Pixy Liao has been receiving attention. In her Experimental Relationship series she explores her relationship with her younger boyfriend Moro. He is shown in a domestic setting in his underwear or half-clothed, often in minimal surroundings. It is clear that his relationship with Liao is a sexual one, though the possessiveness of the photographs looks odd to the eye – again reiterating how unusual it is to see the traditional power balance inverted in this medium.
Pixy Liao, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, 2015 © Pixy Liao
On her artist’s website Liao writes, “As a woman brought up in China, I used to think I could only love someone who is older and more mature than me, who can be my protector and mentor. Then I met my current boyfriend, Moro. Since he is five years younger than me, I felt that the whole concept of relationships changed, all the way around. I became a person who has more authority & power… My photos explore the alternative possibilities of heterosexual relationships. They question what is the norm of heterosexual relationships. What will happen if man & woman exchange their roles of sex & roles of power?” [13]
Attempts are being made to address the balance. Cecilie Harris edits a female gaze focused magazine called Boys by Girls, which describes itself as “a multi-platform publication where the beauty of the contemporary young man is explored through the female lens” [14]. Though their choice to chronicle the “next generation male” can make some of the interviews and photoshoots feel a little predatory, the photographers – including Bec Lorrimer, Bex Aston, and Harris herself – are more successful than Pannack in relaxing their subjects. In Bec Lorrimer’s shoot with Kyle Allen, for instance, the young actor looks into the camera with inquisitive confidence, [15], while Amber Mckee’s shoot with PRETTYMUCH sees the band members joking, smiling and posing for her camera [16].
Amber Mckee, PRETTYMUCH, 2021 © Boys By Girls
Bec Lorrimer, ‘KYLE ALLEN FOR ISSUE 14’, 2018 © Boys By Girls
Despite these more recent examples it feels like little has changed since Imogen Cunningham stood on Mount Rainier watching her future husband. Whatever it was in her that made her pick up the camera in that moment needs to be found. We still barely know what the heterosexual female gaze might look like, but it’s sure to lend some insight into the casual vulnerability of men.
Bibliography:
[1] 1000 Photo Icons, George Eastman House. Taschen, London. 2002
[2] Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, edit. Lynne Warren, Taylor & Francis, 2005
[3] Modern Art 1851 – 1929, edit. Richard R. Bretell. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1999
[4] ‘Margrethe Mather (American, 1885–1952)’, http://www.artnet.com/artists/margrethe-mather/, Date Accessed: 09/02/2021
[5] Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, Screen, Volume 16, Issue 3, Autumn 1975, Pages 6–18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
[6] 1001 Photographs You Must See Before You Die, edit. Paul Lowe. Octopus Books, London. 2017
[7] Jacqui Palumbo, Jun 28, 2019, ‘The Underrecognized Photographers Who Showed Queer Life in the 1960s’, Artsy. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-underrecognized-photographers-queer-life-1960s
[8] Kerry Manders, Aug. 14, 2018, ‘The Most Famous Lesbian Photographer You’ve Never Heard of — Until Now’, The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/lens/donna-gottschalk-photography.html
[9] The Body In Contemporary Art, edit. Sally O’Reilly, Thames & Hudson, London. 2009
[10] John Berger, Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books, London. 1976.
[11] ‘Corinne Day: Musicians’, https://www.corinneday.co.uk/musicians/, Date Accessed: 09/02/2021
[12] Laura Pannack, ‘Young British Naturists (YBN)’, Lens Culture https://www.lensculture.com/laura-pannack?modal=project-230302, Date Accessed: 09/02/2021
[13] Pixy Liao, http://www.pixyliao.com/experimental-relationship, Date Accessed: 09/02/2021
[14] Boys By Girls, https://boysbygirls.co.uk/about, Date Accessed: 09/02/2021
[15] Bec Lorrimer, 22 OCTOBER 2018, ‘KYLE ALLEN FOR ISSUE 14’, Boys By Girls. Available at: https://boysbygirls.co.uk/archived/kyle-allen-for-issue-14
[16] Amber Mckee, 1 FEBRUARY 2021, ‘PRETTYMUCH’, Boys By Girls. Available at: https://boysbygirls.co.uk/conversations/prettymuch
