"Back to Camera" Pose

"Caspar David Friedrich painted people and they turned their back to us, and thus become us inside the picture. But we don't see them and they don't attract our attention. They actually lead us more into the landscape of a place."

— Wim Wenders

A compositional device in visual media derived from Art — the subject (usually one, a few at most) is/are posing with their back/s to the viewer while they are gazing at something. Standing is a common choice, and the pose will occasionally tell us something else about them (for example, a warrior might be grasping a weapon). Usually they're looking up, out, or down at beautiful scenery or nothingness, other times they are looking at a specific thing. The technical term for this is rückenfigur, a German word meaning 'figure from the back'.

The reason this pose has such staying power is that it presents a sense of isolation while inviting the audience to step into the shoes of the subject as they meditatively look out at the impressive scene, and we go "The World Is Just Awesome" or "Oh, Crap!" along with them. It also adds some mystery since we cannot see the subject's face, and so we must guess how they are reacting to the things around them.

Although it has been used by artists dating back to the 14th century, when Depth of Field was beginning to make its way into paintings, the rückenfigur was popularized by Caspar David Friedrich and his fellow German Romantics. Friedrich in particular really liked using this pose, and his Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is one of the closest this trope has a Trope Codifier — for overt homages to that painting, see its ReferencedBy page.

A popular variation of this trope is to have the character stand with their back to the viewer, but with their face partly visible. In this version, the emphasis is often on the strength of the central character, the challenge and mystery in their facial expression, and what they have on their back (if any).

Today, posing from the back remains a popular choice not only in art and photography, but also in Covers and Film Posters (especially for those of the Epic Movie or Biopic flavor), as it allows the audience to insert themselves into the posing character looking out at the spectacle of the premise. It is useful for a variety of tones, from melancholy and meditative to impressive and awe-inspiring. One common variation of the latter is a shot of a lone warrior versus something big and hostile, like a kaiju, opposing army, or Weird Weather: fighting it seems impossible, but this pose is used to display their bravery and resoluteness. However, it is not limited to still images; cinematography can also utilize it to denote pivotal moments.

Super-Trope to Contemplative Boss, where a powerful person looks out over his domain with his back turned. Compare Reclining Venus, another stock pose in art that invites suggestion and mystery. Contrast Boobs-and-Butt Pose and Toplessness from the Back, where the subject's back is turned for fanservice, not immersion into the scenery. See also Always Over the Shoulder, if the positioning allows one to look out at the game world, Chair Reveal, Riding into the Sunset.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Arachnid and its sequels, characters are obsessed with teleporting behind enemies with their back turned. Alice in particular is The Dreaded and every time she is mentioned by someone as a natural-born murderer she is presented in an Imagine Spot looking ominous with her back turned to the reader.
• Season 2 of The Rising of the Shield Hero's anime adaptation has its cover poster show four of the five main characters (namely Rishia, Eclair, Filo, Raphtalia) standing with backs to the viewer, watching the progress of their adversary: the Spirit Tortoise, a colossal armored beast. Only Naofumi is facing forward, unsure if even their combined powers will be enough to thwart such a gargantuan opponent.

Arts

• One of the reasons Christinas World invites such discussion is that Christina is lying with her back to the viewer. As such, we don't know why she's lying on the grassy field depicted in the painting — is she exploring? In pain? Something else?
• Caspar David Friedrich:
  • Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is credited by art historians as the Trope Codifier. It features an unnamed man with his back turned to the audience standing on a cliff in a Captain Morgan Pose and looking out at the foggy scenery below.
  • Woman At The Window features a woman in a house looking out through a small window at the world outside of it. Her back is turned, so the audience is invited to sympathize with the woman yearning to go outside.
• Benjamin Haydon created a matching pair of these:
  • Napoleon Bonaparte on Saint Helena portrays the defeated Emperor in exile.
  • The Duke of Wellington musing on the field of Waterloo imagines the ageing Duke returning to the scene of his last battle.
• Norman Rockwell's The Connoisseur is about an art expert examining a Jackson Pollock-esque painting from the back. Rockwell intended it as a commentary on how his realistic illustrations clashed with that of the abstract expressionists like Pollock, and so the titular connoisseur's reaction to the painting is left ambiguous by his pose.^note Rockwell was a fan, though

Asian Animation

• The end credits of BoBoiBoy Galaxy ends with the titular hero rushing from behind to join his friends before they all look up towards the purple sky with the camera viewing them from the back. The camera then pans upwards, suggesting the heroes have more intergalactic adventures ahead of them.

Comic Books

• The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future: The title page for the chapter "The Heros Jerney [sic]" shows Ook, Gluk, and Lily being shown from the back as they look at the Goppernopper Tower.

Films — Animated

• The poster for Despicable Me 2 features reformed supervillain Gru overlooking a plain full of his Minions, establishing that he's a slick man with authority. And since the first film ended with his reform, the pose leaves what he's planning up to interpretation.
• The Lion King (1994): Mufasa takes his son Simba to a promontory, and presents him with a spectacular view of the lions' realm. Both father and son have their backs to the audience, the better to see the vastness and splendor of the domain. "Everything the light touches is our kingdom."
• A poster◊ for The Super Mario Bros. Movie shows Mario from behind as he looks at the view of the Mushroom Kingdom in front of him.
• The Japanese poster for Turning Red features Mei and her friends from behind sitting on Tyler's house's roof watching the sunrise.

Films — Live Action

• The teaser poster◊ for After Earth sees Cypher on his crashed spaceship overlooking a jungle on Earth, which has now become a Death World. This pose indicates that despite the familiar scenery we're meant to sympathize with the man on the ship.
• The poster◊ for Battleship features Hopper looking up in awe at the alien battleship with his back to the audience.
• Black Rain has a shot of a hulking Yakuza bodyguard from behind as he forces a path for his boss through a crowded nightclub.
• The Butler's poster◊ has Cecil Gaines look out from a White House window at kerfuffle outside. His back is to the viewer and his hands are primly tucked behind his back and in crisp white gloves, indicating his butler position. Symbolically, it shows that Cecil, as a black man, did not have a voice in American politics for much of his employment.
• One poster◊ for the war movie Dunkirk features one of the soldiers gazing out at the destruction with his back turned.
• The indie film Freeze Me concludes with Chihiro Yamazaki standing on her balcony nude during a rainstorm, back to the camera and facing the city. She has killed the three hoodlums that raped her as a teenager, and also her fiance. With no hope of hiding her crimes, she waits until there's a flash of lightning before disappearing from sight.
• The poster◊ for Fruitvale Station has Oscar and Ariana holding hands with their back to the viewer as they look out at the titular train station.
• One of the posters for Inception sees Cobb stand with his back to the audience as he looks out at a skyscraper-filled city being flooded, hinting at the epic and amorphous nature of the dream worlds.
• Knock at the Cabin: One of the film's posters shows the four strangers from the back, getting ready to assail the titular cabin.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • One of the teaser posters for Captain America: The Winter Soldier has Steve stand with his back to the viewer, his shield on full display, as he prepares to jump out of a S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft.
  • A teaser poster◊ for Doctor Strange (2016) has the titular character stand with his back to the viewer as he gazes up against the brightly lit window of the Sanctum. Doctor Strange is the film's Audience Surrogate as he discovers the universe's magical side along with the audience.
• The poster for the film version of The Mist shows David holding his son and looking out at the alien fog outside the windows with his back turned to the viewer. He's also silhouetted by the light from the fog.
• One poster for Oblivion shows the protagonist atop a rocky mound in a post-apocalyptic New York, looking up at a waterfall cascading off the Empire State Building.
• Used in two posters for Ophelia. A teaser poster depicts Ophelia standing with her back to the viewer, looking out across a river and Elsinore Castle – the latter is the primary setting of the film and the former is foreshadowing of Ophelia's watery fate. A theatrical poster depicts Ophelia standing away from the viewer, though with her face turned to show her in profile; this illustrates that Ophelia is stepping out of the background to have a more prominent role in this retelling of Hamlet.
• Poltergeist (1982)'s lobby poster depicts little Carol with her back to the viewer while she puts her hands against a television screen (the old cathode-ray tube kind) that's full of static. Her caption is "They're here."
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire includes a shot where Héloïse looks meditatively out at the ocean in her signature green dress with her back turned to the camera.
• The poster for The Raid has Rama standing with his back to the viewer, looking at the heavily-guarded apartment block that his team is tasked to raid.
• Seven Days in May. USAF General James Mattoon Scott is first shown with his back to the camera, facing a committee of senators to voice his opposition to an upcoming peace treaty with the Soviets.
• The Terminator. After his naked arrival at Griffith Observatory, the first thing the killer cyborg does is walk away from the camera to look over the nighttime city of Los Angeles. As the novelisation put it: The Terminator eyed his new domain impassively.
• Vesper's poster sees Vesper stand with her back to the audience as she faces a futuristic structure, establishing the grungy post-apocalyptic setting.
• In The Villainess's poster, assassin heroine Sook-hee stands firm with her back to the audience while holding a gun, showing she is tough. Her face is turned to the side, implying some trials and tribulations coming her way.

Literature

• A compilation of the Bridgerton novels shows one of the female characters from the back as she walks along a Regency estate, establishing the period romance setting.
• One printing of Frank Herbert's saga Dune has the front cover depict The Hero Paul Atreides standing with his back to the reader, facing an enormous sandworm that seems poised to devour him like a doggy treat. This establishes the grandeur of the setting.
• The first and third books of the Gemma Doyle trilogy show a waist-up redheaded woman (presumably the protagonist, given her distinctive red hair) from the back.

Live-Action TV

• The poster for the CSI reunion movie "Immortality" shows (left to right) D.B, Sara, Catherine, and Gil with their backs to the camera standing on a hill overlooking Las Vegas.
• The poster for Impeachment depicts◊ young intern Monica Lewinsky from the back as she looks up at the White House, an ironic display of hope considering what's in store for her there.
• The second opening of Kamen Rider Blade ends with the four Riders standing and looking at the sea after walking away from the camera, then their human forms are replaced by their Rider forms, still gazing at the sea.
• The season 2 poster for The Witcher (2019) features Geralt and Ciri with their backs to the viewer overlooking a snow-covered valley. Geralt's new protectiveness of the girl, while the epic scenery and lighting promises adventure to come.
• The Law & Order: UK episode "Survivor's Guilt" opens with Detective Sergeant Ronnie Brooks being seen only from behind as he stares at a crime scene. Other factors such as his defeated posture, the somber music, and the shadowy lighting are enough to instantly confirm our worst fears that his partner has died as a result of the gunshot wounds he received in the previous episode all before we even see his grief-stricken face.
• One teaser poster for The Sandman (2022) has Morpheus, with Matthew on his shoulder, stand with his back to the audience as he gazes upon his realm, the Dreaming, from the bottom of a set of stairs.

Music

• The album art for David Bowie's Earthling depicts him standing over a green field while doing a Reverse Arm-Fold with his back to the camera. According to collaborator Reeves Gabrels, the cover was intended to reconnect Bowie with his homeland of England, having lived in the US for roughly 23 years by that point; fittingly, Bowie's back is emblazoned in a Union Jack.
• Kid Cudi: The album cover for "Entergalactic" (which it shares with its television special) shows Jabari and Meadow hugging with their backs to the audience as they look at an NYC sunset.
• Starset: The cover◊ of "Waiting on the Sky to Change" shows an astronaut with their back to the audience, standing on a rocky outcrop and looking forward into a triangular portal in the sky, through which an enormous eclipse can be seen. A variation on this image appears at the start of the music video; some environmental details are changed, including swapping the eclipse for a plain starry sky.
• Taylor Swift:
  • The back of the cover for folklore is a Deliberately Monochrome photograph of Swift's back while she looks out at a grassy field. It is appropriate for the melancholy, self-reflective tone of the album's songs.
  • The album cover for evermore is a photograph of Swift's head and shoulders from the back while she's looking straight ahead into a forest. It fits the meditative, folksy sound of the album.

Theatre

• Anastasia's poster features Anastasia running from the viewer into something in the distance, fitting the show's theme of her seeking her past.

Video Games

• The cover for Bloodborne has the Hunter with their back turned towards the viewer, looking forward in an ominous street of Yharnam while holding a blunderbuss in one hand and a saw cleaver in the other.
• Devil May Cry 5:
  • The first cover art features the three protagonists Dante, Nero and V with their backs turned to the camera as they walk towards several demons and the Qliphoth in the distance.
  • Some promotional art and trailer thumbnails for the Special Edition feature the Wham Shot from Mission 17 wherein Vergil has his back turned to the camera (but looks to the side) as he's surrounded by shattered glass and blue light.
• The main promo image for Dragon Age: Inquisition featured the player character with their back to the player, reaching up into a sky filled with demons and using the power of their marked hand, while the nine companions fight more demons on the barren landscape around them. It's noteworthy because it's wrong - the Anchor, as the mark is called, is on the Inquisitor's right hand in the image, but in actual gameplay it's on the left.
• Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse: The cover art features Ruka standing in front of an eerie building, with her back covered in shadow and turned to the camera.
• The cover art for GreedFall, as well as the image used while booting up the game, is De Sardet standing on top of a mountain, overlooking the valley below, with their back to the camera.
• The North American cover of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has Player Character Link stand with his weapons at the ready as he looks from a cliff over a foggy Hyrule, his back to the viewer. The game has Wide-Open Sandbox elements, and the cover art complements this: Link, the protagonist, has much exploring to do.
• Life Is Strange
  • In the first game, Max's award winning photo is a selfie of herself facing away from the camera, looking at a wall of her own selfies. In-Universe it's considered an impressive work of art (for a high school graduate, at least), out of universe it (along with her habitual selfie-taking) represents her own introversion (even more so the way she's reluctant to submit it for a contest she wins handily after going back in time to enter).
  • Life Is Strange: Before the Storm's second episode opening credits see Chloe vandalise a bathroom with a marker pen. The sequence ends with a shot of her admiring her work, framed the same way as Max's own selfie. Paralleling her connection to Max and framing her snarkyness as a parallel to Max's photography.
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: World of Light: After escaping Galeem's laser beams, Kirby teleports himself to the World of Light, where he stands on a cliff looking at the titular location with the camera facing away from him.
• The cover for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has Rex and Pyra looking out towards Uraya with Elysium/the World Tree in the background. The reversible cover is similar but changes the background to a sunset, switches out Pyra for Mythra, and has them only looking at the World Tree.

Web Animation

• Red vs. Blue: The season 12 teaser trailer ends with going through most of the major characters one by one, showing each one doing something different. The last one is Carolina; she stands with her back to the viewer, then turns her head to the side so that her visor comes into view. This reflects how she's been absent for the past season while off doing her own thing, while also hinting at her eventual return this season.

Webcomics

• Paranatural: On this page, Forge stands facing away from Nin and the reader while a Dramatic Wind blows, and gives an enigmatic statement about having a debt that must be paid.
• Vibe: The volume 1 cover shows Bree in the background, turned away and glancing at the reader from over her shoulder. This reflects her departure in between the prologue and the present day story, the distance she puts between herself and Baron (who is in the foreground, facing toward the reader), and the mystery of what's up with her.

Western Animation

• When traceur Vi returns to the undercity in Arcane, we get a shot of her above the ground looking down at the neon Wretched Hive from the back.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The Opening Narration's line of Katara believing Aang can save the world is accompanied by animation of Aang with his back turned and overlooking a cliff as the camera pans up to the sky. This gives the impression that Aang has epic adventures ahead of him.
  • A poster showing both Aang and his successor, Korra,◊ looking at a Pillar of Light in the distance.
• Disenchantment: This◊ promotional image for Part 2, which depicts Bean with her back to the viewer looking at a faraway kingdom.
• A poster◊ for Inside Job (2021) has protagonist Reagan stand with her back to the viewer as she looks at a wall full of screens depicting various conspiracy theories.
• Steven Universe: Near the end of "We Are the Crystal Gems", the heroes stand with their backs to the audience, looking up at the villains looming over them. In the same shot, the yet-to-be-introduced Yellow Diamond is the only one in the villains' group who is standing with her back turned. A few seconds pass, and she slowly turns her head so that one of her eyes is visible, glancing back toward the camera.
• Watership Down (2018): A couple of posters show the rabbits from behind as they look forward, representing how they are embarking on a journey.

Real Life

• A photograph of President John F. Kennedy was taken as he stood at a table, silhouetted by light from the window in front of him, his back to the camera. His body posture seems to depict the heaviness of the job as he ponders a decision during the Steel Crisis.
• In an interview with the Louisiana Channel, director and photographer Wim Wenders talked about his usage of this trope. The human subjects of his photographs often have their backs turned to the camera, allowing the setting to take center stage.
  Wenders: As soon as a person is in there, that person tells a story about the place. In painting it's the same thing. My favorite painters, landscape painters - they didn't put anybody in the foreground because its always about that person. Caspar David Friedrich painted people and they turned their back to us, and thus become us inside the picture. But we don't see them and they don't attract our attention. They actually lead us more into the landscape of a place. [...] If you want the place to tell its own story, you have to leave it alone.

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