Project Outcomes and Personal Development – John Bloom
At the very beginning of this portrait photography class, I felt eager to diversify my practice. I was keen on learning technical skills, theory, conventions, and how this class might influence how I navigate this messy knot of an industry. I can certainly say at the end of this project, I have shifted the way I see how powerful a portrait can be and the ways in which I can manipulate the camera in order to evoke a meaningful message. Portrait photography has the ability to highlight subtle nuances we may not see at first glance.
My journey began with reflecting on my own feelings and emotions during the pandemic. Using this time for introspection was something I felt was important in an age like this, and I would frequently have ongoing conversations and debates with my friends regarding mental health and their own experiences during this time. Many are spread out throughout the world, others are just ten minutes away. But with just a quick click of a button, regardless of how far they are, I am able to see their face in the palm of my hand. I can hear their voice, see their facial expressions, and see if I’ve said something that they disagree with from their body language. To be connected in this digital age is something we take for granted, no longer the need for sending lengthy letters or complicated telegrams. For a majority of my conversations with my friends, we all agreed on this – we feel completely overwhelmed by the number of media news outlets we have access too, to a point where it feels drowning. It is a complete data overload, considering how fast case numbers are updated and written about in the press. We all feel lost, and pulled in thousands of different directions. What do we believe, and where do we begin to navigate this daunting path of forming our own opinion? Having these conversations and this continuous reflection assisted me in developing my project. I wanted to express these emotions I was feeling, and really evoke this in a highly considered portrait. When bringing awareness to the medium of my photograph, I wanted to juxtapose the digital age we live in – by presenting my outcome in an analogue style. This doesn’t mean shooting in analogue, it was about making it feel dated and non digital.
In my own personal development, I really valued the lecture which explored portrait photography as a performance, and using the space to bring upon sensory feelings or transport the viewer into a different place and time. As explained in Daniel Treacy’s lecture, “…practitioners transform and blur our understanding of what is reality and fantasy, by incorporating styling, props and set design in quite simplistic ways.
The camera’s position is very important with regards to perspective – the camera becomes a participant in the performative act” (Treacy, 2020). Treacy’s lecture inspired me to challenge myself to capture a moment that considered these factors. I came to understand the real power I have as a photographer behind the lens, and my ability to develop these visualizations.
References: Treacy, D 2020, Performance in Photography, lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 20 April 2020.
Figure 1. Bloom, J. (2020) Portrait Photography Outcome Better Lives [Photograph]
29th April 2020 @ 12:19 am
I deeply enjoyed the way that you described the current state of crisis in the world, your own personal experience with your friends, and your thoughts. I haven’t really seen anyone describe it in the way that you did now. The reason I enjoyed it as much as I did was because you said what everyone else is thinking but scared to say. Your expression of how isolation is having serious implications on young mental health is outstanding and extremely relatable. The overwhelming information by everyday media is imprisoning and seems to be a tool that helped you with your personal growth throughout your photography project. I feel like you connected well with the better lives themes throughout your project process by wanting to and creating a piece that looks “dated and non-digital.” This clearly brought out your creativity and your connection with the theme of social responsibility by giving empathy to the viewer and wanting “to bring upon sensory feelings or transport the viewer into a different place and time.” Wanting to make the viewer of your photograph forget the moment that they are currently living in by transporting them somewhere else gives me the sense of an empathetic and deep feeling of social responsibility in a new and uncommon way.
I think that you could have spoken more about the other two better lives themes by explaining how both sustainability and diversity have influenced your practice during your learning process. Overall, I couldn’t agree more with your statement and really loved the way that you expressed your ideas during your journey.
I also found that your photograph outcome was very created and visually impactful.
1st May 2020 @ 3:18 pm
Blog Post 4 – Peer Review Will Clarke
In Johnny’s third blog post ‘Project Outcomes and Personal Development’, his portrait photography outcomes are a direct response is to his own emotional reaction to the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic. Here he has managed to communicate this “overwhelming” and euphoric loss of all normality, sense of time and perspective in his images. Immersed and drowning, the pencil sketched figure is fighting the rippled surface above, making the conscious effort to stylise his work to feel “dated” and almost weathered in its sepia tones.
The capillary waves above the subject signify a greater force in control; the pandemic of the ‘data overload’.
Using his knowledge learnt through his ‘portrait photography as performance’ lecture, the viewer of his work is indeed transported to this emotional deluged soul – you almost forget that the subject is a sketch and begin to give him your own human empathy. Here Johnny has manged to reflect the Better Lives theme of social responsibility, or rather create a piece that is socially reactive to the current context. When approaching any work, it may become too difficult to acknowledge all three Better Lives themes directly. I certainly didn’t when it came down to my own work, and I think this was an unrealistic target of the course. However, within the thought and concept behind the piece as explained, there is an underlying feeling of imminent change suggested by the uncertain feelings and how advancements in communication technology has and will continue to change societies behaviours. Whilst the themes of diversity and sustainability are not directly addressed, the unsustainable future, and general uneasy consensus that we all feel will not be able to be sustained – and by extension this includes ALL of society and therefore this is a diverse notion.
It’s clear that through specific photographic practitioners, Johnny has embraced that” the camera becomes a participant in the performative act” when considering perception. This is reflected clearly, as the distance and then sudden focus on the subject in his collection of six photos shows his thought about compilation and narrative. He has identified the power that thoughtful photography holds, and he has expressed how he now feels more confident on a technical level to be able to produce his visualisations. It would be interesting to see how Johnny would react now after gaining this valuable insight; how would he build a project surrounding other stimulus for content? For example, a more direct link to diversity – how would he communicate the deep routed anger in under-represented diverse minorities in fashion through his photography?
10th May 2020 @ 3:43 pm
I really enjoyed looking through my fellow SMC Better Lives students blogs for insights that I had previously not thought of throughout my own unit – giving us all the chance to learn from all different types of fashion practices. But the blog I wanted to review was from you, John Bloom.
I loved the way that you made your blog personal and genuine to you, drawing from your own struggles through the COVID-19 pandemic. Through speaking on mental health discussions with his friends to describing his own feelings as “drowning”, which I think was a good word choice to communicate to your readers feelings of helplessness. Which I think a lot of people are feeling like right now so it’s nice that someone is speaking up about it. The Better Lives unit as a whole is about looking into societal and environmental issues from around us and trying to better those and this is exactly what you have done this by twisting the lockdown into a positive since we still have each other at a ‘click of a button’.
I also really appreciated how keen you was to learn more about different fashion industry practices when this unit started. It seems like you would’ve put your all into any course chosen for you to diversify your practice and learn more technical skills. This is also what the better lives unit is all about, diversifying us to make us the best fashion practitioners we can be. Bloom spoke about after this Better Lives unit its now shifted the way that he thinks about portraits, and probably all art. Having more of a respect for the practices now. This is so nice to hear and it shows how the Better Lives unit has impacted him forever.
You showed a diverse amount of knowledge about the course you got put on, Portrait Photography. A subject I before didn’t know much about. Bloom spoke about Portrait Photography as a “performance” where the props were the actors. “Using space to bring upon sensory feelings” Blooms’ knowledge of the subject helped him be able to create conceptual portraits, using techniques to highlight and dramatize certain things which in turn made his portraits more conceptual (the concept being technology through time). I did notice though, there wasn’t much talk of the Better Lives themes as much as you did in your other blog posts and if you didn’t know how to link it the Better Lives lecture by Nick Almond: emerging technologies in fashion, this could’ve have you some points to help link the topics together for easier writing.