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The Western Gaze – Some Thoughts About Leni Riefenstahl's Photography

 

Looking at the pictures, it is apparent what the photographer is trying to show us. Leni Riefenstahl's photographs aim to illustrate the physical perfection of the 'godlike' people of Nuba. But based on whose perfection? Based on whose parameters of beauty? Riefenstahl's fascist aesthetics, as Susan Sontag addresses it (1975), does not really give us any insight into the lives of Nuba people. It seems to me that there is a lack of interaction between the photographer and the Nuba, despite the fact that Reifenstahl's stay with them was not a short one. Yet, the photos do not take us anywhere beyond their appearance. There is nothing ethnographic or anthropological in these visual documents; if there is, it must be immensely superficial. 

Riefenstahl's way of documenting was evidently selective, not to mention the way she was capturing the moments. But most importantly, who was she filming for? The audience was clearly limited to the West alone, the part of the world that would definitely appreciate Reifenstahl's aesthetics. After all, her aesthetics was the product of Western culture and politics, which also can be called the 'Western gaze'. This very gaze can be understood as an act of othering – attributing constructed features to individuals on the basis of a self-centered (and ethnocentric) perspective. By displaying the Nuba people as if they were filmed for a magazine cover, a 'godlike creatures', having the features the Westerners desire to have, Reifenstahl creates a representation of Nuba in a way that would be interesting to the Western audience. 


What is the Western gaze really about? I would say that it predominantly (but not only) consists of the male gaze, which creates a visualization of both – female and male bodies based on the politics of patriarchy. Interestingly, Reifenstahl not only objectifies the women's bodies but also the men's. Nevertheless, I think there is a certain framework of femininity and masculinity which she tries to impose in the photos. 

Riefenstahl's work showcases that capturing "aesthetic" photos of people's everyday life is not necessarily an ethnography. What is missing from her work, first of all, is the self-reflection and examining her way of seeing. 

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