Fragmented Gaze

My MFA thesis project explores the concept of the gaze and its role in shaping identity, drawing on feminist and psychoanalytic theories. By analyzing the power dynamics between the viewer and the viewed, my work challenges traditional representations of marginalized genders’ bodies such as those of women, nonbinary individuals, or transgender people. I seek to unravel these constructs by reimagining how bodies are seen and understood, pushing viewers to confront their own biases and preconceptions.

In my experimental photography, I distort and deconstruct the human form as a deliberate act of resistance against objectification. This process of distortion challenges the viewer’s ingrained expectations, subverting the idea that a body must be easily identifiable, categorized, or sexualized.

Through abstraction and distortion, the human form becomes less of an object to be gazed upon and more of a subject with its own agency, liberated from the confines of societal labels and projections. These deconstructed forms encourage viewers to question not just what they are looking at, but why they perceive bodies the way they do.

Ultimately, I aim to create a space for bodies to exist beyond objectification, outside the limiting narratives imposed by patriarchal norms, and invite a deeper contemplation of identity, power, and autonomy.