Gender in Photography

Through my own experience in taking AP photography, I have also noticed the gender difference in photos. This comes from both how women photograph fellow women differently than men to even how men photograph different fields of photography at the AP level and above. As Mr. Oxton said in his 21 years teaching AP photography at the Governors Academy and students scoring very well along with winning multiple golden keys each year in recognition of our photographers. He still has never seen a male photographer photograph neither little kids or woman in their underwear, like seen in Kira’s award-winning picture for reference. However, these are the two types of photos that are commonly taken at the AP level and higher, while male photographers will focus on landscapes. This leads me to believe it is a gender difference. I have always found this odd, but never took a step back to see the big picture with gender. The way male and female photographers photographed the same woman is astonishing. The men focused on capturing the audiences male gaze by using her as an object due to her beauty. While the women focused on the female gaze. Taking elegant pictures that did not objectify the subject, but showed emotion and a story. This was a very visual representation of what men think of women and what women think of women, and clearly, it is different. 

Within the New York Times article: Highlighting Women in Photojournalism there is the need for equality for women photographers in the field. This is a result of male dominant corporations using their dominance over women because they are “only half a worker.” Sadly this is not a surprise to me as seen with one of the biggest corporations, Nikon, not selecting a single female photographer out of 32 men to represent their company. Around the world, woman rights are in different places as seen in the Japanese company, but I have hoped considering all of the great photography that we saw last Monday night.

I think it would have been beneficial for Mr. Oxton to show some male photography just for people who have not been in a photo class to see the difference. So here is my AP concentration if you wish to view it.   

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7etZFMnpvbYQzdpUlVSX1FLU2c?usp=sharing