Free textual analysis of still image essay example

Part 1.

Bazin explains that photographic lens is a true reflection of the world. The lens automatically creates an image that is real and that is captured as it was. This means that photography gives a reality of the world as it is and does not depend on the creative nature of artists. According to Bazin, photography lens is objective reflection of the world. He goes further and argues that photography give satisfaction to an individual’s deep need for reality or precisely termed as realism. In the image chosen, the pictures give a true image of the world, for instance, in the first image we can observe three individuals, a man, a woman and a young boy standing next to a building. This is how the world is in reality. In the other picture, it is observable that there are six people including adults and children, two of them are playing snooker, and it is obvious that they are inside a building. To a viewer this is reality of the world as captured by the camera lens.
Barthes urges that photographs can be termed as either mad or tame. Barthes implies that the meaning of a photograph is interpreted according to ones background and therefore it is not fixed but differently interpreted worldwide (Barthes, 2000: 119). In the first picture, there are different ways to interpret the relationship among the three individuals shown. This is according to how one thinks who they are to each other. In the second picture, we can get numerous meanings depending on a person mindset about the behavior depicted by the individuals. The context in which the picture is read may affect its meaning and nature either positively or otherwise. Thus, the way a picture is captured and portrayed by the photographers is greatly influenced by their cultural and social perspective.
According to Bourdieu, the objectivity of a photograph is easily influence by the photographer’s cultural identity (Barthes 2000: 122). The manner it is captured may convey the photographer perspective of the world. As in the first picture, the photographer is demonstrating a cultural aspect in the society he identifies with. The pose between a father and a daughter in the photograph shows the level of respect and this is because of what their cultural values expect of them. As way to express honor to her father, the girl in the picture positions herself in a manner that shows respect as required by their culture.

Part 2.

Question Two
The concept of male gaze is a much use in the construction of the cinematic gaze. Is considering this concept helpful in giving us the importance of gender in cinemas? According to Mulvey, male gaze is a way of portraying the female body as an object for voyeuristic and sexist practice of the spectators. Besides the male gaze, there is possibility of gaze regime to change such that male also become the subjects to be seen in the cinematic gaze by women spectators.
Mulvey asserts that cinema provides visual satisfaction through scopophilia and recognition with a single male actor on the screen. The psychoanalytic theory by Freud is vital in understanding the reason behind the use of women as sex objects by men, this is the argument given by Mulvey. On the above basis and the patriarchal nature of the society, films creation thus acts as an outlet for female sexual misuse. Mulvey separate scopophilia into the active part that is always male and the passive part that is always the female and the objects of interest.
According to Mulvey, cinema apparatus are not gender neutral due to the assumption of male gaze perspective by all the spectators through a male perspective camera. This analysis by Mulvey favored the male gaze whose voyeurism is manifested through cinema, which turns women as objects of its scopophilia.
Despite the male gaze, it is not always a case of a male being the dominant observer over the gaze because there is an increase representation of male bodies on the cinematic gaze in the recent time (Wells 2003: 34). Thus, the male masculinity is something to be seen by viewers in the cinema, these viewers include the female, and thus some films open space for female spectators.
Furthermore, for one to be considered as a subject of the gaze there must be others to look at from the outside. Therefore, male actor on the cinema screen is a subject to be seen by viewers and this give female the opportunity to be spectators. This is an indication of shift in gaze regime, which means that the cinematic gaze is becoming heterosexual over time.
Advertisement has greatly influenced how people think about gender. Male bodies are increasingly used in the television screens and this suggests the change in the limits by the male gaze (Wells 2003: 75). Moreover, this consequently turned the male bodies as objects to be displayed.
In conclusion, the male importance in construction of cinematic gaze is more pronounced compared to female gaze. The male gaze was common due to the patriarchal society, which viewed female as objects of sex. Nevertheless, due to the changes of situation and reception male may have been turn to be objects of voyeuristic gaze although not as equal to the female counterparts.

References

Barthes, R. (2000). Camera Lucida: Reflections on photography. London: Vintage.
Wells, L. (2003). The photography reader. London: Routledge.