Artist Research- Isabelle Wenzel

Isabelle Wenzel has been a key influence in my work, and being a feminist photographer, her work is very significant in how the female gaze is shown through performance photography:

-       She uses her body as a sculpture.

-       Photos are taken in domestic spaces.

-       Despite being a performer, people still see her as a female performer before anything else.

The last point has been important in helping me contextualise my work and practice, helping me to think deeper about what performance self-portraiture is saying about women are what the female photographer is trying to portray.

The male gaze is evident in how a woman acts in front of the camera, and how they are perceived- this gave me the idea at the start of the year to use different gestures, poses and use the body as a sculpture which has stayed fairly consistent throughout the project however now it is more my own style rather than a copy of Isabelle’s work.

Charlotte Jansen’s talk has been very relevant and made me think more about the female gaze and how women are perceived and shown within photography and art. The key point taken from this artist research is that no matter what she does with her body, how she poses it- she’ll still be seen as a female performer.

Screenshot of a recent image from Isabelle’s Instagram