The concept of the 鈥渇emale gaze鈥 first emerged as a response to the writings of feminist
film theorist Laura Mulvey (b. 1941), who, during the 1970s, identified the predominately
male perspectives around which Hollywood films were structured. British-born, Paris-based
photographer Laura Stevens (b. 1977) is interested in this dynamic, bringing a 鈥渞esolutely
feminine and contemporary point of view鈥 to her personal projects. She crafts quiet, filmic
portraits that ripple with emotional depth and the sense of a story unfolding. Women look
beyond the frame and into their reflections, as if in moments of deep contemplation. Each
piece is painterly, deftly grappling with colour, gesture and light. The results could almost
have been rendered in oils. Outdoors, trees bluster against auburn skies and sunsets bounce
off glowing leaves. Stevens is a master of the cinematic, offering studies of vulnerability, solitude
and intimacy through a darkly tender lens.
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All images courtesy of Laura Stevens.
