Fifty years after Gary Winogrand’s iconic–and problematic–series “Women Are Beautiful,” the white male gaze comes in for critique and review, a new look through a new set of eyes. In his own “Women R Beautiful” Natal San Miguel challenges and revisits Gray Winogrand’s project for 2020.
Winogrand’s notion of female beauty has been criticized as restricted and–in terms of race, age, and sexuality–very narrowly defined. Meanwhile, the process embodied in his photographs has often been recognized as invasive and objectifying, indifferent to the discomfort he imposes on his subjects. Natal-San Miguel’s photographs embody a different gaze, a different perspective of different women, while still seeking to understand the concept of beauty in our age.
Natal-San Miguel says his goal in this series is to expand the pantheon. “It’s a way to have people understand otherness and other beauty; another definition of beauty.” The women show themselves as they are, and he’s their communicator. -Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
