The Female Gaze

‘THE FEMALE GAZE’ IS AN ONGOING PHOTO AND NONFICTION PROJECT. it came out of me walking around Abu Dhabi as a young, Westernized-appearing, Indian woman taking photos of male city-dwellers. I used writing and reflecting about this experience as a starting point for my project, for it illuminates central questions and dilemmas: How does the male gaze function in urban space, especially that of the UAE? What is the male gaze exactly, and what are the systems at play that produce and perpetuate it? How do local cultures and backgrounds of both this nation, the spaces and people I photograph, and my own background and positionality affect and shape this gaze? Can I effectively subvert the male gaze? Can I define a “female gaze”? Can that gaze have power, and if so, how? What is the role of my own female body and its eye, and then the role of the camera and its lens, in this process? Why are the streets of Abu Dhabi so often seen as male-dominant spaces and what does this to do to my practice and psyche as a brown woman? How do the realities of industrialization, urbanization, globalization, technologizing, and immigration come into play?