to Gaze implies more than to look at it signifies a psychological relationship

Several key forms of gaze can be identified the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the image the direct address to the viewer: the gaze of a person depicted in the image looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer the look of the camera - the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people; less metaphorically, the gaze of the photographer.

In addition, there are several other types of gaze which are less often mentioned: the gaze of a bystander - outside the world of the image, the gaze of another individual watching the spectator in the act of viewing. Have you ever watched someone in a museum? the averted gaze - a depicted person’s noticeable avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist (and thus of the viewer) - this may involve looking up, looking down or looking away the gaze of an audience within the text - certain kinds of popular televisual texts (such as game shows) often include shots of an audience watching those performing in the 'text within a text';

It is useful to note how directly a depicted person gazes out of the frame. A number of authors have explored this issue in relation to advertisements in particular. In his study of women’s magazine advertisements, Trevor Millum distinguished between these forms of attention: attention directed towards other people; attention directed to an object; attention directed to oneself; attention directed to the reader/camera; attention directed into middle distance, as in a state of reverie; direction or object of attention not discernible.

Julia Margaret Cameron Charles Darwin

For I am the Queen Mother

Sadness

Mountain Nymph

The Echo

Alice Boughton Untitled

Unidentified

A Chat

Palmer Instructor with Three Graduates with Diplomas and Geraniums

Southworth and Hawes Woman in Floral Bonnet and Zig-Zag Dress

A Conversation Piece

E.J. Bellocq Storyville Portrait

Bill Brandt Portrait of a Young Girl

Harry Callahan Eleanor

Emmet Gowin Ruth and Edith

Nancy

Edith

Nadar Self-Portrait

Woman in profile

Sarah Bernhardt

The Photographer’s Wife

Irving Penn Tennessee Williams

Three Rissani Women

Richard Avedon Marilyn Monroe

Beekeeper

Uranium Miner

You are not simply taking a portrait. You are studying the way you look at your subject, the way your subject is looking back, and the relationship you are establishing between the viewer and that subject.