Projecting Words and Bodies - STEVEN R. TABOR

Projecting Words and Bodies

Where do gender roles come from?

This series uses projection photography---a technique that originated in the 1960s with the work of John French, in which photographic images are projected onto a model. For this series images of short poems and vintage playboy playmates were projected, using a mini-beamer, onto a model, Maya, who posed against a light background. These images were selected to illustrate how, historically, the male gaze has been formed.

The male gaze, or male perspective, is difficult to avoid in art nude photography, for often the photographers are male, while the models are female. From a feminist vantage point, the male gaze is the act of depicting women from a heterosexual perspective that represents women as objects for the pleasure of the male viewer.

Poets have long created cultural narratives which emphasize the differences between men and women, and which highlight the importance of the physical beauty of women. Women are often identified in poems as a prized possession, acknowledged merely for their physical attributes. Playboy Magazine created and propagated sexualized images of the girl next door, in ways that fostered sexist attitudes, while also contributing to the objectification of women.

If you'd like to see the full series, download the full catalogue here.