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4 Years Ago
The Concept of Staring and its Relationship to Street Photography
I recently read an article on staring, its social implications and the perceived thought of the gazer, its believed that staring is a sign of aggression (alpha male), desire, criticism (don’t like someone or something about them ), and wonder if it has a parallelism to public dislike of street photography or association of SP with creepiness? I was taught, perhaps through some leadership motivation seminar, that you should look someone in the eye when speaking to them as it helps convey truthfulness and also alerts the listener (especially if you are speaking to someone in a group format) that you are personally addressing them and them alone. I’ve always looked people in the eye when speaking to them, even before the seminar, however sometimes I may be looking in the direction of someone yet contemplating something that has nothing to do with the person standing in the direction of my gaze.
I remember one time I was at a job interview in a crowded office setting and while the interviewer was doing something else, I was going over in my mind how I would respond to expected questions, I really needed the job so I was intent on getting my answers right. The interviewer had returned their attention back to me and I was still lost in thought, there was a pretty woman standing a few feet away and she was directly in my line of sight. The interviewer had asked me a question and I didn’t hear her and when she looked in the direction of my gaze; she noticed the young woman and touched my arm and said “you don’t have a chance as she has a boyfriend, besides can’t you see that she is pregnant”. We both laughed and I didn’t correct her assumption as I was more embarrassed about being distracted from the interview than the thought that I was staring at someone. I suppose the interviewer’s belief that I was physically or sexually attracted to her coworker is somewhat proof that staring can be perceived as a sign of desire or I suppose in this case creepiness.
Another instance where I noticed my direct gaze had an effect on someone is a long ago conversation with my older brother, you see my older brother was a known bull-shit artist, he would usually go into a long tale whenever he needed money, so one day as we were talking I noticed that he kept avoiding my gaze, he tried to convince me that his story was legitimate and I told him I didn’t doubt it but couldn’t give him any money, he said he knew I didn’t believe him because of the way I stared him directly in the eye, I said my looking him in the eye had nothing to do with my belief in his story; it was just my way of showing him I was paying attention to him. He didn’t believe me but told me that when I looked him directly in the eyes the way I do it made him nervous, I didn’t tell him that his avoidance of my gaze made disbelieve his tale but inwardly it did.
I’ve also noticed that foes, friends and sometimes supervisors avoided eye contact with me, I have had to convince somewhat aggressive males that I harbored no ill will towards them, I do know that staring at an aggressive male can sometimes escalate an argument but it doesn’t stop me from looking them directly in the eye and in fact my behavior has resulted in a few fist fights, also sometimes various supervisors have told me that I either appeared angry or upset when in actuality I was only listening to their comments, this usually occurred when I was being reviewed or criticized for some past performance, in actuality I am a bit of an introvert and am not as aggressive as some people believe me to be. But getting back to the topic of street photography, I wonder if the photographic practice is perceived to be an extension of staring, is it rude to take photographs of a stranger or someone you know without their permission? Is photography considered an undressing of a subject and is it thought that the practice is sexual in nature and only a method of prolonging the stare? And while we are on the subject of the photographer’s intent, women are also street photographers and are more likely than men to photograph children, women or men, and are perhaps more aggressive than their male counterparts when they approach an intended subject. Yet, women are rarely labeled creepy; however there is one female photographer who received negative criticism for her style of photography. Having loosely associated the act of staring at someone with the practice of street photography will not curtail my behavior, however it will make me more cognizant of who I photograph, how to respond when I am confronted about I photograph I’ve taken and how I interact with people socially.
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