Laura Stevens - HIM

PHOTOGRAPHER RESEARCH
LAURA STEVENS

HIM

‘With representations of the male nude predominantly made by male artists, there is a lack of imagery exploring a female sensual response to male beauty. Regardless of the advances made in recognising women’s capacity for and right to visual pleasure, the historically dominant male gaze prevails.

Pursuing a way of looking at and portraying man, I questioned the cliched symbols of a ‘hard’ and ‘active’ masculinity which deny vulnerability or the supposed feminine qualities of ‘soft’ and ‘passive’’. www.laurastevens.co.uk/him-text  (Stevens, L., 2018).

Steven's use of a plain background and a washed, pastel tone over the photographs emphasises the softness of the male form in this way. Her use of shadow accentuates muscular shapes in the body but without force, again evoking a gentle, passive representation of the male figure, a stark contrast to hegemonic representations of masculinity in other media (including harsh, aggressive, deeply contrasting, dark photographs). 

I admire her choice to photograph plainly the crinkled bed-sheet laid upon by these men - there has been a history of movement there, yet this is no longer present - a subtle, beautiful detail.

Stevens continuously depicts the backs of her male models here, neglecting to show their faces when doing so, adding to the shyness and vulnerability of these images. 

I am particularly interested in Stevens’ work as she cleverly identifies the lack of male nudity in the media shot and generated by a female producer/subject to female gaze. This reversal of typical sexualized gender roles in the media is central to my proposed theme, however Stevens work is specifically unique in how the subtlety and vulnerability of a man is exposed and displayed here through his naked form. This is a simple yet undeniably powerful statement. 

My thoughts are to use inspiration from this work to again challenge the viewers perception of gender in a photograph, but using a female model posed as a male.

I aim to reverse the emotions and messages portrayed in this work, showing a harsh, confident, cold, stubborn image and everything that hegemonic masculinity embodies, yet with a female model, to test the extent to which that female is still sexualised despite the male characteristics displayed.

The full collection of work is available through the photographer’s website: https://www.laurastevens.co.uk/him

Stevens, L. (2018) HIM. Available at: https://www.laurastevens.co.uk/him/2uqt8335o3hczalxxj1stuqjteus38 (Accessed 24 March 2019)