The gaze internal to the image

Question

The following text describes two photographs by Claude Cahun which can be seen below. my questions are:

1. Does "twists the image into a distorted loop reminiscent of" simply mean "reminds of"? I can not understand the meaning of "distorted loop" here.

2. Does "In both these photographs, the gaze internal to the image moves off to the side" mean "in both the photographs one of the figures (or their doubles) is looking at somewhere outside the photograph"? Does it mean the "gazes" that I have marked in the images below? What does "the gaze internal to the image" mean?

3. Does "self-fashioning beyond the frame in an off-screen dream space of constant mutation" mean "representing their bodies for someone residing a dreamy space (a changeable space) outside the frame of the photograph"?

Text:

While Cahun looks directly out at the viewer, her mirror reflection twists the image into a distorted loop reminiscent of the splitting of Cahun and her double in Que me veux-tu? (What Do You Want of Me?), also from 1928. In both these photographs, the gaze internal to the image moves off to the side, suggestive of possibilities of self-fashioning beyond the frame in an off-screen dream space of constant mutation.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

catttt1. Does "twists the image into a distorted loop reminiscent of" simply mean "reminds of"? I can not understand the meaning of "distorted loop" here.

cannot

The loop the writer speaks of is the imaginary closed circular line traced by the lines of sight of the subjects in the photograph. The loop is not perfectly circular but is distorted into some other shape, perhaps even twisted on itself.

When you say that a thing is reminiscent of some other thing, the first thing reminds you of the second thing by its similarity to it. In this case, the two heads and their eye positions in the photograph under discussion are a lot like the same elements in the other one, and that makes you think of it.

catttt2. Does "In both these photographs, the gaze internal to the image moves off to the side" mean "in both the photographs one of the figures (or their doubles) is looking at somewhere outside the photograph"? Does it mean the "gazes" that I have marked in the images below? What does "the gaze internal to the image" mean?

By "gaze", the writer seems to mean an almost tangible beam extending at a right angle from the subject's pupils out to infinity. Such a beam that is internal to the image would not come out into the viewer's space through the framed opening. An internal gaze might be directed more or less vertically or horizontally, in this case "off to the side", or horizontally. I think you are right with your marks.

catttt3. Does "self-fashioning beyond the frame in an off-screen dream space of constant mutation" mean "representing their bodies for someone residing a dreamy space (a changeable space) outside the frame of the photograph"?

Yes. Or no. The writer drove off without me this time. Your guess is a good as anybody's.

The gaze internal to the image

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