Meltin Pot Image Analysis

Meltin Pot is a male's retail company selling jeans and other denim products, they target young men in the 20's and 30's... have used a series of photography for an ad campaign which explores the idea of male fantasy and sexuality.This image is very telling of the society with live in today, the 'advertising industry dominated by men' (Coward, R. The Look. ), made be men for men it is there to reinforce the power and dominance of men in society and shows women to be subordinate sex. The photographer has thought about every aspect in the image, from location, colour, arrangment and the story it is protraying. Using a set This image is particularly interesting as we have numerous intra-digetic gaze's happening in the same image. At first glance we are drawn to the woman in the centre of the image bound to the chair, her gaze stretching the the far left of the image away from us, her gaze is very strong and although she is helpless as she is half naked bound to the chair there is a sense of power through the use of her body, power in her appearence. We follow her gaze to the person in the chair at the fair left we can see his appearence in the mirror, half hidden it appears dark and dirty part of the male fantasy that is explored in secret. Then we look to the man on the right, his jeans first as the rest of him blends into the background of the image ...(talk about the idea expressed about the jeans how it links in)... the man on the right is exploring his own fantasy, it is his gaze we see exploring the idea of 'sex at a distance, the only complete secure relation which me can have with women'. He is the only man in the image that is able to move, showing the dominant male, he has full control over the woman and his fantasy empowering his feelings of control.

Curtains & Mirrors.
Within this photograph mirrors and curtains have been used to mask and reveal parts of the set and people, it is interesting to see how the man with the pig mask can only be viewed by ours and the man on the right's gaze of the image through the mirror. The mirror allows the photographer to create a 'double of the self, a second figure who can be examined more closely than the original-  a double that can also be alienated from the self' (Lutz & Collins 1994 -376). We view the man in the mirror as an object and this makes him a more subtle component of the scene allowing the person to be more explicit. It is a part of the male fantasy that he is trying to hide from us, a dark fantasy, the mirror gives us as insight into this but only through another means, something beyond the mans control. Or is the man in the chair infact himself both men are to the side of the photograph and can be seen together in the mirror in the middle, is he looking at his own fantasy where he plays a role within it. If he is the man in the chair then this shows another gaze and .... he watches over the fantasy as the stronger sex the one in power and control but himself in the fantasy in the chair has less power than the woman, if we look carefully at her gaze onto the man it is very powerful and strong staring not necessarily seducing.

How do we feel looking at his fantasy?
The Gaze of the bystander (highly charged when the text is erotic)
When i first glanced at the image i was very aware of the sexual context and its explicit nature and I, as the viewer, questioned whether this is something i should be looking at, are people looking at me looking at this image?  Until i explain that the photograph is in fact an advert for a jean company then it becomes acceptable in todays society for me to view it... it shows how explicit and ... advertising can be in todays society. We are growing up around seductive, picture perfect women pasted on billboards and magazines , ready and waiting for a male view that this image has now become the norm.

COWARD.

NARCISSISTIC DAMAGE
-situation where women are forced to scrutinise themselves and other women, mental control

Men needing the idea of being controlled.

We the consumer of an advert are viewing the image from a direct gaze, representing a demand which makes us enter a 'parasocial relationship' (Kress & Van Leelwan 1996 122ff) with the people depicted within the photograph, the relationship in which we engage with them is determined by their facial expression or body language.

Are we then part of it?