Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze by Charlotte Jansen

Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze Reviews

• 
  Kat Arnett

  This book is terrible. It smacks of someone writing a thesis and then finding work to fit their ideas, rather than observing photography and then coming to a conclusion. While I support the idea of what the book wanted to be, as someone with nearly 20 years in the industry I can't endorse the work. It never fully realizes the male gaze va female gaze argument nor does it explore the history of female photographers photographing women. Instead it acts as if this is a new phenomenon.
• 
  Loviattara

  What an intriguing subtitle! 'Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze' oozes promise. Sadly, it's entirely misleading. 'Women Photographing Women in the 21st Century' might have been more descriptive, but I would've been disappointed either way.
  
  There is little theory to be found here, and it seems like the author does not even attempt to build a case for 'the female gaze'. The book has its highlights, showcasing the work of artists such as Zanele Muholi and Iiu Susiraja, but towards the end in particular, it dwindles to commercial photography and early-to-mid-2010s pop feminism à la Tumblr. The latter's influence can also be seen in the text, in which the words 'feminism and femininity' often appear as an awkward pair.
  
  There's the cardinal sin of art books, too: an interesting piece of work gets described and analysed only to be omitted among the pictures. I don't need to be shown the same 2015 teenage aesthetic all over again, I want to see the photo that was censored on Instagram! It's a bit ironic to write about the subversive power of photographing hairy and naturally existing female bodies and then proceed to print just the images that could be mistaken for—or worse, actually are—ads.
  
  Additionally, the layout of my hardcover library copy is lovely but its print quality less so, with a lowish DPI measurement resulting in unintentionally grainy images.
• 
  Hannah Poppe

  A thousand stars!
• 
  Ash

  -Obscures/manipulates facts to fit the agenda of her 'thesis', which never actualises.
• 
  Lizzie

  Interesting and enjoyable but somewhat limited!! I much prefer the cover I saw in the museum — the look in the eyes of the woman on the cover was striking. I read this book from cover to cover in a museum gift shop, not intending to. I told myself if there was anything about gender diversity beyond cissexual feminism, I would buy the book, even though I have spent way too much on books the last few days. But there was next to nothing. The book was highly praised for being a full look at the spectrum of variety of female photographers. But it just wasn’t. There was one part about a photographer wanting to take down straight, cissexual white women, but then the models in the photo were all apparently, um, yeah. I took several pictures of pictures from photographers who were like, I specifically choose models with diverse body shapes and people aren’t ready for my work cuz I show such body diversity. And then their selection in this book was like. Ok so how much are you hunching your back to create one roll in your stomach right now. And there was a lot of discussion of ‘Im not a feminist, I’m pro-female’. I was like wtf does that mean but Brynne very smartly pointed out that was just. TERF ideology.
  
  I liked the photographs in this book. I liked the interviews with the photographers / description of the work because they were written out fairly informally and u could feel connected to the work and mission of the artist. Also showed the diversity of modern photography— some bodies of work were selfies on instagram, model portraits in elaborate dress with painted backgrounds, intensely edited, raw headshots, etc etc. I would have loved to have bought this book if it was just a little more in line with my interests and opinions on womanhood, bodies, sexuality, etc. Enjoyed reading it and looking at it, but no room on my shelf!
• 
  Laura

  Range of artists and approaches. From Maya Fuhr, "tumblr makes girls feel comfortable about feeling sad or lazy, because it's a community of billions of people scrolling and sometimes longing for the idealized view of beauty that they see. It's highly relatable to hear other people's problems or see a wide range of beautiful body types and ethnicities lying on their bed, on their computer, alone."
• 
  Ariana

  This reads very much like wearing a pink pussy hat to a protest. Not offensive or wrong, just a bit surface-level. Most of the stories featured in this book had to do with women’s sexuality and how it’s been historically commodified by men and media, which is true, but I was hoping it would focus so much more on other aspects of what being a woman really is rather than just “reclaiming our bodies” by photographing women naked. Our bodies are the least interesting thing about us. Just because it’s a woman behind the camera is not really “sticking it to the man”. Needless to say, most of the women featured in this book were white and I felt that also took away from a lot of important discussions about what true feminism looks like when it’s not packaged in a pink pussy bow. The language in which it directed itself was also so self-important and it honestly made my eyes roll on multiple occasions. Overall, I just think most of these stories lacked the depth I was looking for when diving into a book meant to tell the stories of women as seen by other women.
• 
  Paige

  Such an excellent intro to all these great contemporary female photographers. 😍 it was really empowering to see these women embracing their passion and pursuing it in such a way that make photographers haven’t done.
• 
  Lila Hathaway

  love this book and these photographers so much! if you love art, photography, and feminism this is a must read and a great coffee table book.