Haifischflossen – constructed photographs of women

MORE PROSTITUTES AND NUDES.

“Ach, es sind des Haifischs Flossen
Rot, wenn dieser Blut vergiesst.”

‘Oh, the shark’s fins appear
Red, when he spills blood.’

[Bert Brecht / Kurt Weill, “Three Penny Opera, The Ballad of Mack The Knife”, 1928]

Who’s Gaze?

Constructed photographs inspired by photographs of women, i.e. images of nudes, photographs of prostitutes, erotic photography, women in daily life, etc.

A reviewer wrote once about this work, it is “about the male gaze”. This is not correct. These images were not created from scratch. They are, like all art is, a reflection of the surrounding that I have seen, otherwise, no value or opinion is attached to them. Their subject matter and style were inspired by the photographic images that other people before me, men and women, made on this topic. I can’t for sure know the true reasons and motivations for creating their pictures because these original photographs were not made by me. It may have been as an outlet for personal sexual desire, as a form of social or historical documentary, pure curiosity, in an attempt to address a specific demand in the market, a combination of these reasons or a completely different one that I can’t think of, because I am a different person than the photographers.
To claim these images are ‘about the male gaze’ would be like assuming the prehistoric Venus of Lespugue must have been made by a man because it shows a female statuette, and once we find proof it was made by a woman to conclude it can only be a piece ‘about the male gaze’.