Photo
Vienna 2023

Laura Mulvey, in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” introduced the concept of “scopophilia” to describe the pleasure derived from looking, particularly in the context of cinema. Scopophilia is derived from the Greek words “skopein” (to look) and “philia” (love), and it refers to the pleasure and satisfaction one experiences through looking at something visually stimulating.

Traditional photography tends to cater to the male gaze, positioning women as objects to be looked at and deriving pleasure from the act of looking. Scopophilia, in this context, is linked to the visual pleasure that comes from the act of observing and objectifying individuals, particularly women.