Kate Biel inaugurates the series PhotoVogue Female Gaze
It was 2016 when PhotoVogue dedicated its Festival to the female gaze, questioning the hegemony of the male perspective in the arts, investigating through photography the concept theorised by the film critic Laura Mulvey. The female gaze is an act of redefining reality through the way we look at it. It is also an act of resistance, of regaining back the narration of the woman and the female, for too long and too often held in the hands of men.
Today we created PhotoVogue Female Gaze, a new series focused on female photographers and their works. In a socio-political landscape in which womxn have gained more centrality but, at the same time, see their (freshly achieved) rights continuously threatened, we think that it is pivotal to share the multifaceted talent of the womxn of our PhotoVogue community. Our artists can be inspiring and encouraging figures for all those who dream but can’t or do not have the words to describe or the eyes to see their dreams and potential.
âBarbellaâ is a project by Kate Biel about female bodybuilders that was exhibited at the eight edition of the PhotoVogue Festival in November 2023. Stereotypically seen as grotesque, excessive, and masculine, in this work female bodybuilders are seen for what they are: women, layered and complex individuals with stories to tell. Biel has the ability to cherish them and their physiques sculpted in massive muscles with powerful, theatrical images. Her lens, however, never falls into expected narrations of banal strength, but captures with delicacy and sharpness their shimmering femininity. We discussed with her about the project, its process and its feminist outcomes.
Kate Biel photographed by Ana Margarita Flores
So, to begin, Iâd like to ask you how this project was born and how you approach the women you portrayed in Barbella.
The project was born essentially from my friend’s mother, who is a female bodybuilder and she competed a lot in her early days. I started photographing her just as a test shoot and I loved how it looked so much that I was like, I want to find every female bodybuilder in Los Angeles now. And so it took a lot of searching and messaging people. I did a lot of searching on Craigslist and Instagram. I at some points had to fly certain female bodybuilders into Los Angeles because they’re all over the world, but they’re rare in every city, if that makes sense. I became so obsessed that when I would see a bodybuilder on my explore feed on Instagram and I’d just be like, I have to get them to LA, and I just couldn’t sleep until I did. And then along the way, I would have discussions with them and learn how they ended up there and their experience throughout it. This really informed the art I was making with their stories, because there’s so much variety and depth in their stories.
And what are the things that you didn’t expect to see and find in these women? Of course, you were curious and attentive, but I think that you didn’t expect or were surprised by some things you saw.
Yeah, I mean, I didn’t expect the daily ritual of being a female bodybuilder. You have to eat very specific foods every two hours, I think, or even less. Otherwise, you’ll faint because having that much muscle on your body requires so much energy. I really respected the dedication to this lifestyle. I could not do that, to remind myself to eat every two hours just to maintain my physique. But they were so emboldened and empowered by their physique that they truly believe it’s worth it. And I think that’s a healthier way, to be honest, to practise female vanity compared to not eating or trying to change who you are synthetically. I’m not passing judgement on people that do either of those things but you feel more emboldened when you’re a woman and you see yourself as a machine and you have to consume and work out in order to feel like a woman.
The other thing that surprised me was how we originally, for so long, saw female bodybuilding as such a masculine thing and a manly thing. These women are using bodybuilding either to win the talent portion in their beauty pageants or in their sex work as dominatrixes or to feel more empowered sexually and also to just be closer to their feminine nature and not feel fragile and helpless. And I think we forgot that being a woman is not being fragile and helpless. It’s the exact opposite. This reminded me of what it is to be a woman, what I think I’d forgotten for so many years. It was a nice reminder that being feminine is actually being intensely strong. And these women know that.
Jessica With Lev, 2021
This made me think of what you said in an interview, that feminine nature is intertwined with pain. And this is dedication, but it’s also painful sometimes, I think, to just be very strict with your lifestyle and your habits. And I think that in this society, we see pain as a negative thing. Do you think that they have – both the bodybuilders, and women in general – the ability to transform pain into power?
Yes, exactly! And I think I will always stand by this, that pain is the best teacher. These women lean into pain by going into intense, intense workouts. Their bodies are exhausted. They’re always pushing their body to the limit. They lean into pain. They don’t run away from it, they don’t deny it. And women understand pain, having periods, and giving birth, for example. And I think female bodybuilders show that pain is good, you know⊠no pain, no gain!
So true. You said so many things, this was a very long and rich project that lasted more than three years right? It started in 2019 and ended in 2023, right? How would you wrapped it up in three words?
Yes, my last shoot was in January 2023. I think the three words that would describe it are defiant, revolutionary, and erotic.
Leana With a Pug, 2021
Your images are very powerful and you can see, like we said, all the pain, all the effort. But at the same time, they avoid the male gaze. So, how did you find your own way, your personal female way to portray these women? I think it’s important to underline that not because you’re a woman you canât have a male gaze, right?
Of course, exactly. When I first started as a photographer, I feel like I photographed women with a male gaze, if that makes sense. I just didn’t love how I was photographing women, if I’m gonna be entirely honest, because I grown up really loving a lot of male photographers, which is fine. But I think it informed me early on how to take photos, and I had this big reckoning that this didn’t feel that I was empowering women. And so, yes, women can have a male gaze, and men can have a feminine gaze. And regardless, I wanted to have a more female gaze. I think that it was about finding women that were strong, that weren’t being celebrated by the mainstream male media.
I also wanted to approach them differently: I would start the shoot like an interview getting to know them, their comforts and their discomforts, what makes them spark and what makes them feel bored. And I didn’t want anything to feel exploited. That was a big part of how I felt as a photographer: it’s so common that people find subcultures and they exploit them and point fun at them, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. This had to be about honouring these people and shedding light on them. Some people will always think that they’re weird-looking, but I’m normalising it, and that’s the first step.
Kynlee in the Garden, 2022
Yeah. And how was the reaction of the public? Was it what you expected?
The first year was with my friend’s mom, who’s a female bodybuilder and I was so excited about the photos. And I remember I was at this event, and I was showing this man the photos that I had taken earlier that day, I was so proud of them. I was sure that he would have loved them. And the first thing he said was like, I don’t like that, I don’t like the subject. And it hurt me in a way that I never been hurt before. I didn’t take it personally, I was more surprised that he couldn’t see the beauty of this woman. It was a huge wake up call. You know, I don’t want people to like my work, I want people to be uncomfortable with my work and have discussions with my work, that’s how we really evoke change. So at first, no one liked them. Then magazines started liking them, then the general public started liking them. So I kept doing it as sort of defiant act against that one guy.
You said that bodybuilders are seen as grotesque, but this can be an empowering term, because you can subvert its meaning. So, can you explain to me this concept of grotesque and what is its power?
Just to reiterate, I would never call these women grotesque. I find them beautiful, but other men would have said that to me before. I’ve done a lot of reading on female monsters and the whole mythology of where female monsters come from. And it’s sort of a way to instill in women on how to be: you must be fragile and delicate and lovely and always positive and kind. And these monsters are these women that are shaking the system like Medusa. They’re terrifying and change things up: men, or at least the patriarchy, finds that terrifying. So they label them as female monsters, you know? And so men labelling female bodybuilders as grotesque is like a modern way that ancient times would call a woman, a witch or a monster. This makes men feel afraid of their own masculinity, so they’re going to shame it.
This is very interesting. Since this was a project that lasted three years, did your attitude towards the project itself and the women portrayed changed? Did you see changes even in the public opinion?
Yeah, I think I my respect just built for them. Obviously, I’ve always humanised them from the moment I met them, but I really felt connected to them in a different way. I started working out a ton and put a lot more effort into making myself feel empowered through physical exercise, and it really does go a long way. I’m by no means saying I’m the first person that shot a female bodybuilder people – a lot of people do, it’s a great subject matter. However, I have seen over the years since I started it, that it’s become more normalised: I see ad campaigns with female bodybuilders in it, and more editorial spreads that are just starring female bodybuilders. As a global community of artists, I think we all become attracted to the same things. And so when I started doing my female body shoot, other people were also investing time with the female bodybuilder communities. It’s good to see that the female bodybuilders I worked with would reach out to me later and be like, hey, your shoot got me this campaign that helped pay for my car!
I want to enter the final part of this interview talking about you and your practice, because I think it’s extremely important to talk about the personal life behind the professional one. It’s an important cornerstone of feminist theories to avoid objectivity and the idea of the artist standing alone like a hero. So, how did you start this profession? And what are the challenges you experienced as a woman in this field?
I started practicing photography, just as a way to have a relationship with my mom, because she was very much in love with photography. While she sees it as a way to capture memories, I saw it more as a way of creating new memories, and different types of truth and realities. I worked in a few fine art galleries after college, and then I decided to go fully freelance photographer. I knew I had that skill set, and everyone’s looking for photographers to take headshots in LA. I think that I have to work 10 times harder as a female photographer to be taken seriously. And that’s okay. You know, and I think it’s getting easier every year, especially when more women enter positions of power. It took a lot longer for me to gain the respect that I have today and I finally got there. It almost took 10 years, but once I did gain the respect, I already had created a whole body of work and so much to bolster my self-respect that I didn’t even need it anymore from other people.
Jessica With Flowers, 2021
Have you ever felt aware of being a woman, of your âdiversityâ? Were there times that you felt that your gender was somehow a limit or the first thing seen? And how did you try to change this thing?
Yeah, I mean, I learned very quickly that lesson. Through college, in the summers, I would work in big photo studio equipment rooms. I was this small girl working with this equipment along other men. Part of our responsibilities was to bring all this heavy equipment from the studio into the equipment room. It was heavy, but that just made me want to lift it harder, you know? And, but men really bullied me in that equipment room. And they really wanted to make me feel like I didn’t belong there. It infuriated me, but also just made me want to stay even more, I didn’t want to let them win. They would try everything to taunt me: they would lock me in the equipment room, like while, from the outside for hours, sometimes they would throw things at me. It was like a boys club and I had to be older sister. I just laughed it off: they weren’t going to get me out of here, they would have got used to me. And eventually they did. I am really glad I had that experience because it really prepared me for what I was going to expect in the photo career, it emboldened me. You can’t get confidence from other people. You get it from yourself and to showing people that you’re not going to be taken down easily.
And to conclude, what tips would you give to a young girl who desires to become a photographer?
I would give a lot of tips, but first I would say: say yes to everything. Never say no, unless obviously it doesn’t feel safe, but always say yes. Because the more people you know, which you get to know the best when you work with people, the better. And then one advice tip that I learned during COVID that it has really helped jumpstart my career was when someone asked me: well, what do you whose career do you want your career to look like? And I described this one photographer. And then they asked me: so what did they do to get there? And I figured that they put together a lot of their own shoots, and they didn’t have a magazine or a gallery backing or financial backing. They just did it.
