The Gaze.

Kim Weston.

Untitled.

   Kim Weston uses nudes in all his photographs, to be more specific female nudes. Weston being a man means that all his images are taken from a male perspective or a male gaze, he constructs these images to exactly how he wants them to be seen. He can manipulate certain points of the image to ensure that it is given the same meaning that he wants it to. 

       "Any nude is a something you setup in front of the camera." Kim Weston

   A nude is described as a naked body being seen as an object, which is also defined as scopophillia the pleasure of looking at other's bodies as objects. I believe this to be very true to Weston's work, if you examine to the photographs above you can clearly see, especially with the image underneath that Weston has not photographed these women because he found them attractive or even  because he liked them as people. You can tell this because he has covered their faces, he is viewing them, and wants us to view them, as just bodies or objects, he is no longer viewing them as people. This image also deals with the theory of power, the fact that he has used women in this image and that they are tied up connotes power over these women. As Weston is the photographer and also a man it says to us the viewers that it is men or a man who is holding this dominant power over these women. This image might be viewed as being offensive and oppressive towards women, as the image has been published every person that looks at this image too is not going to view these women as people but rather as objects that make up this particular image. 

   Obviously within this image we are looking at the women, they are restricted from looking at us it almost gives us a sense of voyeurism. They are naked and are being displayed like pieces of meat for us to look at, they too cannot look at each other, there are a number of women within this room but none of them are looking at anyone. It almost seems unfair that we can see so much of them and they can see nothing of us, their naked bodies are clearly visible to us whereas their face and identity is disguised. This is the opposite to what is usually normal amongst people within our society, usually we can clearly see people's face and identity but not their naked bodies. 

   I think that this image could either be trying to shock us or to demonstrate some of Weston's hidden desires, many men talk of the fantasy of tieing women up during sexual intercourse as it adds a sense of dominance and excitement. the image objectifies these women, making them appear available for male sexual fantasy, many men may look at this image and relate it to their own similar desires whereas other people may be shocked by what they are looking at and some may be disturbed. Weston does not make it clear with exactly what message he is trying to get across with this image. 

   We own the gaze within this image, we can look at these women but they cannot look at us, it also deals with the ideas of voyeurism and scopophillia, the image objectifies the women as available for male sexual fantasy. 

Nude on the beach 2009.

   This image is another from Weston but has quite a different look and feel about it, obviously it still has a nude woman in it but this time we can see her face and she can see us. 
This image has taken on a very sexual feel to it, the position of the woman and how she is eating the hotdog connotes very sexual acts to us the viewers. This image has a less objective feel to it, I think Weston is still using the woman as a sexual object for his pleasure, but this time the woman is more involved. 
The first image had a sinister feel about it and we could not tell if the women involved were willing, whereas with this image we can tell that the woman is posing as her face is visible to us so we can see her expression. 
The image is still using the woman but she seems not to mind, it is almost like she is playing with the viewer, we cannot tell exactly where she is looking as her eyes are covered. 
   Again I feel with this image we own the gaze, we are looking at her looking at someone or something else. She is choosing not to look directly at us. I think this image too is intended for the same reasons as the first, it could be to shock people or it could be aimed at male fantasy. People who might be shocked by this image are women, feminists in particular as it is almost cheapening this woman, she is making all women look available for male fantasy, she is giving it all away upfront.