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The inspiration for this series was partially founded in “the gaze”. The gaze concept heralds from the 1970s and was originally linked to cinematography and in particular, the “male gaze”. I am not particularly interested in the male gaze per se, having considered this topic for years as a male photographer working with naked subjects. My observation, 50 years on from the original gaze criticism, is that we all engage in gazing, to some degree. It appears to me to be part of the human condition and the phenomenon is simply amplified when the subject is nude/naked. I am therefore interested in deconstructing “the gaze” so as to understand this human condition. Specifically, I am interested in the propensity for the gazer to assign attributes to the subject even though they know nothing about them. In gazing, the gazer necessarily develops an artificial persona or a fantasy version of the subject. I am interested to know if the subject’s face disrupts or adds to the creation of this artificial persona. More importantly to me, is the point when the gazer relinquishes their fantasy version in favour of reality. That being, that they do not know this person, the person is unique and entitled to respect and dignity, the person is unconnected to them, bar the resonance of a two-dimensional image that they happened to see. Having finally arrived at this realisation, is the former gazer, now viewer, interested to know more about the subject, or do they move on. Regardless of which, why so?