Framing the Woman Photographer: On-Screen Representation and Legitimation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/fotocinema.33.2026.24215Keywords:
fotógrafas; cine; representación; cultura visualAbstract
The cinematographic representation of women photographers is a subject of study that has barely been explored within visual and cinematographic studies, despite the growing attention that cinema has given to the figure of the photographer. As opposed to broad or descriptive approaches, this article suggests an audiovisual, historical and cultural analysis that focuses on the cinematographic construction of the woman photographer as a subject of the gaze. The main objective is to analyse how cinema has depicted female visual authority and how such depiction has evolved from models of subalternity, sentimentalisation and sexualisation towards contemporary forms of professional legitimation.
Using a methodology based on audiovisual analysis, the gender perspective and visual culture studies, we have studied five films that were produced in different historical contexts: No Time for Love (Mitchell Leisen, 1943); Over-Exposed (Lewis Seiler, 1956); Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978); Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (Steven Shainberg, 2006); and Lee (Ellen Kuras, 2023).
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