Easy on the Eyes

Jeanette May’s photographs examine how women have been able to look at men within the confines of Western visual and textual narratives. She considers the female gaze via the genre of directorial photography. Each scene includes a male character depicted in mid-storyline and an “implied woman” just outside the frame. He is the photo’s subject matter, but she is the narrative’s protagonist. Easy on the Eyes juxtaposes a visual narrative with a passage from a novel by a female author. The pairing creates neither irony nor parody but rather a disruption of the viewer’s desire for an uncomplicated tale.