Gender lenses:

Corporality from the perspective of female photographers

Abstract

The eyes look for a body to pose themselves on. It is assumed that each gender observes, identifies, and represents different aspects of the body of their counterpart. This social representation is transferred onto
the elaboration of artistic images that unite with individual and collective identities, but with some biases; that is to say, with a different perception for each gender. Some scientific studies have demonstrated that women observed in a different manner than men did, particularly when related to sexuality. It was perceived, in studies of artistic works, that there was a differentiated manner that the observer traversed or explored points of interest in a heterogenic or asymmetrical manner in relation to their counterpart. In this case, the gender differences correspond to the ways that the female photographers
capture the male body, unveiling their own narrative in order to create a personal art form. Thus, a gender visuality can be posed; here painting is likened to photography, due to the recent feminine incursion into artistic photography. What is intended to be observed is that, historically, women have not painted male nudes or at least not very many, especially during moralizing periods. Instead, they have depicted faces or paternal or matrimonial figures as crucial elements. Since the works of Derrida, Bauman, and other postmodern theorists, the immanent and conceptual dynamics of photographic practices are posed as a sort of consolidation of cultural and gender studies in order to establish an evident dialogue, all of this based on the feminist theory and semiotics.