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

by Charlotte Jansen

Girl on Girl looks at how women are using photography, the internet and the female gaze to explore self–image and female identity in contemporary art.

A new generation of women is taking the art world – online and offline – by storm. In an image–obsessed culture saturated with social media, these 40 artists are using photography and the female gaze to redefine the fields of fashion, art, advertising and photojournalism, making a profound impact on our visual world.

Forty artists are featured, all of whose principal subject matter is either themselves or other women. Each is accompanied by a short profile based on personal interviews with the author, giving a fascinating insight into this exciting shift in female creativity.

"Charlotte Jansen has brought together some of the finest female photographers of our generation" – Refinery29

"A very important book" – Vogue Italia

"Young female artists are using photography and social media to explore issues of female identity. This gorgeous book introduces 40 of them, in an investigation of photography and the female gaze." – Eva Wiseman, Observer Magazine

Features work by

Aneta Bartos

Tonje Bøe Birkeland

Nakeya Brown

Juno Calypso

Anja Carr

Amanda Charchian

Petra Collins

Maisie Cousins

Nathalie Daoust

Shae DeTar

Lalla Essaydi

Maya Fuhr

Yaeli Gabriely

Petrina Hicks

Ayana V. Jackson

Lebohang Kganye

Lilia Li–Mi–Yan

Pixy Liao

Alexandra Marzella

Rania Matar

Izumi Miyazaki

Monika Mogi

Zanele Muholi

Mihaela Noroc

Birthe Piontek

Elizabeth Renstrom

Marianna Rothen

Phebe Schmidt

Leah Schrager

Molly Soda

Johanna Stickland

Iiu Susiraja

Deanna Templeton

Yvonne Todd

Mayan Toledano

Jaimie Warren

Isabelle Wenzel

Aviya Wyse

Jessica Yatrofsky

Pinar Yolaçan

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Feminism, LGBT, Gender

192 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[Kat Arnett · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thousand stars!

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the selection of artists and artwork, but even more I was super impressed with the thoughtful commentary that accompanied each artist.

[Ash]

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

[Lizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

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!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brother bought me this book a couple of years ago as part of my university work, objectively it’s hilarious he got me this book and all he knew about it was it’s called Girl on Girl! Anyway I love this book - not only does it have pictures in but it’s just so lush in quality and content! If you’re wanting to do your third year project at uni about the female form and the female gaze I would recommend this book!

Artists I loved the most in this book:

Aviya Wyse
Juno Calypso
Aneta Bartos
Marianna Rothen
Petra Collins
Johanna Strickland

[mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is the first photography book i’ve really consumed in detail so idk if i’m just too uncultured in this aspect lol but this was kind of … meh? i liked a lot of the photos but i guess they weren’t really what i would have expected to see knowing the title of this book

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

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."

[Babelfish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Female gaze should not just become female's gaze

[Ariana · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Alison Exley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good Introductory book on modern female photographers who photograph women and their reasons why. I enjoyed the array and variety of photographs, style and focus put on display in this book.

Although a good introductory book, I wish the author broke down some of the photographs, giving a more critical analysis of the photographs and the emotions they may project onto women gazing at the pictures.

There were often times that the author used quotes or paraphrased sections of well known feminist or writers such as Rebecca's Schneider's The Explicit Body in Performance ect, however the author does not provide a bibliography at the end with all her sources. I felt this would have been beneficial if you as a reader wanted to do some further reading to clarify any points that the author has made.

[Cat McDowall · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 - Definitely have a different opinion on this now than back when I first read it, it doesn’t come across quite so revolutionary to me anymore, more just the same recycled ideas and opinions on a topic that’s hard to capture the essence of in one anthology - but there is some amazing work in here, a great collective of images from very talented people.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Features profiles and product of a collection of females, excluding Annie Leibovitz though she is mentioned. Some of these are selfies, some are beautiful (bare skin) and some are weird/creepy. Insightful.

[Zara · Rating 3 out of 5]

the photographers and selection, great! the writing. not so much. didnt really hear anything about "the female gaze"

[angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice mix of work from contemporary female photographers around the globe

[Olivia Nahmias · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3 stars*
Incredible photography depicting the female form/figure.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this while doing theory in my Photography class. It is perfect at explaining everything and was extremely useful!

[Letti · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were like 3 pages I liked. The pictures are nice tho!

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of artist profiles drawn from interviews with forty contemporary female photographers. It doesn’t really go into context for photography outside of the brief writeups for each artist. It had some nice quotes pulled from the interviews and it introduced me to some artists I will definitely look into but I wasn’t terribly impressed by all of the selections. That’s fine. I enjoyed it.