Gendering the gaze

There’s been a lot of activity recently in the OCA photography students’ flickr group under the heading ‘Male Domination of Photography‘ Questions being asked about why so many big name photographers are male, the make up of OCA students and tutors. Of course the representation of women has long been a subject of interest, the image above clearly references earlier religious imagery . The role of women in art is a a more recent concern. This is a topic in the Visual Studies 1 course, written by the OCA’s Peter Haveland. The first students to enrol on this course are now completing and it is getting good reviews. Janet Keith said ‘I have really enjoyed your course and think it should be compulsory & not just for students of visual based subjects. It has been a real eye opener and I feel I have had a very good introduction to many fascinating ideas – and so have many of my more forebearing friends…. It has been an education in the truest sense of the word and I have always found that buzzy.’ I’m not sure about making it compulsory, I doubt we will need to given the interest in the subject

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