11/05/17
Girl on Girl. Art and
Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze.
By Charlotte Jansen
Hardback, 192 pages
ISBN 9781780679556
Published by Laurence King Publishing
£19.99 retail
“We see photographs of women every day, but we are used to
looking at them in a few specific contexts,” writes editor Charlotte Jansen, in
the introduction to her new book, Girl on
Girl. Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze. “On products and
billboards, in shop windows and magazine covers, in erotica and pornography.”
The premise behind the book, however, is that there is a rapidly growing number
of women out there photographing women, creating images where both the subject
and the “gaze” are female. “At times,” Jansen continues, “there seems to be
little difference between how women photograph women and how men photograph
women, but women have the right to self-objectify and to exploit without
critique, just as men have been allowed to do since the earliest forms of art
emerged”. And here, Jansen offers 40 international female photographers the opportunity
to present their work, their aims and their motivations neutrally and without
critique, albeit opening themselves up for critical response.
