S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

The Evil Eye and a Portrait of a Man

2008.09.07

The Camera as The Evil Eye

In Revelations there is a description of the memento from Diane Arbus’ life while she was convalescing from an illness. She writes to her friend how: ‘I put the camera around my neck although I didn’t use it and I was grateful just to wear it’. (Arbus, 2003. p. 194). The photographers wear the camera around their neck, like a talisman that wards of the ‘evil eye’ while acting as one at the same time. In the Wikipedia’s (2007) discussion on the ‘evil eye’, in different folklores, ‘a person - otherwise not malefic in any way - can harm adults, children, livestock, or a possession, simply by looking at them with envy.’ It could be said that photographers look with an envy at their subjects, with a wish to capture and appropriate, while simultaneously shielding themselves from the gaze of others.

Portrait of a Man

15 Comments

You've nailed it, Dragana! Thank you for sharing this. Great thoughts.

Iwanowski · 2008-09-07: 09:11

thanks for the screamin' jay

dae88 · 2008-09-07: 09:46

it could also be said that photographers are Japanese tourists

dae88 · 2008-09-07: 09:48

Well said... :-)

wfrnk · 2008-09-07: 09:52

I doubt that Arbus thought of the camera as a talisman. I suspect she thought of it as more a real part of herself, a third eye perhaps, and felt incomplete without it. And I would suggest that her life story belies the idea that it offered her any protection; in fact, it was probably the catalyst of her demise.

As to evil eyes, there have been many cultures and people that feared the photographer, as they believed their souls were being stolen by the photo, although I doubt that they believed the photographer’s intent was based on envy; evil for sure, but envy, maybe not.

As to my own experience, and you may argue intent here, I think the process has been more curiosity, although envy can’t be discounted. And nothing has drawn more attention to myself than me taking a picture. When I would be unnoticed or inconsequential, my camera has drawn others’ gaze, involving me when I normally would not. The camera has hardly been a shield. In fact, I’ve been threatened a few times because of it.

I certainly wish to capture and appropriate, but it’s not envy. And the camera has never offered me any protection.

dae88 · 2008-09-07: 10:44

Thank you. Very interesting post. :)

mariaps · 2008-09-07: 11:50

I have a different experience with it. I have been 'protected' by my camera a number of times, or excluded from uncomfortable activities. I guess Bronx at night is another story, but talking about my daily routines in an 'average aggression' environment, I have found my camera to be more of a talisman than a red cloth. I guess I am lucky, too.

Iwanowski · 2008-09-07: 15:01

Very interesting take on it!~ R

urmysunshine · 2008-09-07: 15:21

you always have such interesting things to say.

dhulsmeyer · 2008-09-07: 17:23

interesting...

jenjung · 2008-09-07: 17:44

I understand something else from the "shielding" there. It's not about protection, it's about hiding. And that I definitely do. Some situations can go wrong, as Dae said, another times I just don't wanna be noticed and yet another times if people would see you (me) they would act unnaturally. We all know the camera smile, grin etc...
So yes, I (maybe we) will shield ourselves "from the gaze of others".
Speaking about the envy factor, I very seldom experience that... Usually there is curiosity, simple beauty of the subject. I do not envy them, I just love their image.
But that might be just me...

mijocus · 2008-09-07: 18:57

Great post. Congrats for initiating such a thought provoking conversation. I personally could understand the feeling of envy. Not in the literal common sense, but in the sense that I envy their image. I don't want to be them, or have what they do, but I want to own their image in my camera.

Even though my camera offers me no physical protection, and in fact probably puts me in harms way, it does give me some figurative protection. I no longer am affected by the gazes of others as their expressions become images that I own. What they think of me matters not. Only what I see at that time matters. I am shielded by others due to my being completely immersed in capturing images.

makaid · 2008-09-07: 22:48