BLOG 2: Portrait Photography
Reflections on how the Better Lives themes might change how you work in the future;
Now we are into the second phase of our ‘Better Lives’ unit, I am focusing on contemporary portrait photography being tutored by Danny Treacy, during this we have been shown more personal works of Danny’s like ‘Them’ a collection of images Danny created where he distorted his own body by layering and disguising the face to tell a story through his images and also many different guest lectures inspiration where we were introduced to photographers like Juergen Teller, Ethan James Green and Samuel fossa. They have shown us that what is most important is connecting with your subject is the best thing to be doing to get a good image. Also, good lighting and direction on set. ORGANISATION IS KEY. Firstly, scout out a location, mood board, test shoot, shoot but ALWAYS a test shoot and be professional.
During this we have been mingling with students from hair and make-up, creative direction and 3D fashion animation getting to know each other through group excise, for example as a group we were asked to go out to the market and make a collection of images that inspired us works we wanted to focus on lighting but also have a similar feeling aesthetic going through our images so we went for an orangey color scheme. We were able to achieve most of these images because these lovely ladies setting up a restaurant inside of the building let us look around and exchange conversation. we have also been looking at basic camera controls and training like changing the ISO, Aperture and shutter speed during this.
The better Lives unit is helping me change how I work in a more positive way by making me more professional making new connections with friends that will help me with collaborations in the future. I went into contemporary portrait photography class not knowing anyone apart from like 3 individual that are in my styling and production class, now I can at least say I feel comfortable and happy to talk to everyone in the class.
We also have a social responsibility to show what happens in the world today into our images, as Kate Fletcher said in her Nature lecture, nature is the enabler of the fashion system however Nature is also fashion’s limiting factor and we need to get this point across, without cotton or silkworms there won’t be any clothes, we need to stop taking for granted what we already have and start being greener and these alarming facts should make you do so as well, did you know that all living systems are now 50% in decline or that there was 2x as many birds, animals and plants in the 1970’s then there is now on earth. contemporary portrait photography as shown me that having your own aesthetic is key in making it in the fashion industry, so my aesthetic is going to be all GREEN only, upcycling, remaking, renting, reusing. NOTHING NEW.