Better Lives – Blog 3
For my chosen project within the Better Lives unit I studies portraits photography. After the initial lectures about the key themes of Better Lives I went into this project thinking about how I would apply these themes into my work whilst still creating visually interesting images.
I put photography as my top choice of project as I do hair and makeup for my degree and felt that knowing more about portrait photography would benefit me in the future and will help me when talking to photographers.
Due to the current pandemic I felt that the theme of social responsibility highly influenced my mind set and also the work I produced. The last few lessons of my course was when we were all inside in isolation, which made taking photographs more challenging however, it made us continue to create images whilst still being socially responsible and staying in due to the lockdown. I did find it hard to produce images due to a lack of models and locations as well as a general lack of creativity due to the circumstances. This meant that I had to develop my creative thinking and explore new ideas of image making, by utilising what and who I have around me to create images for this project.
We had a lecture in which our teacher Daniel Treacy showed us his own work which I felt successfully covered the idea of sustainability. He showed us his work and explained to us how he would often find old garments which had been discarded in random locations and reused these items to create new looks which he would photograph. This changed my thinking own regards to creating images, as before I would automatically think of a fashion photography shoot, in which the clothing are new and everything looks more clean and crisp. However, from his images I learned how you can successfully create interesting images whilst reusing and recycling. If people consider this in their future work it will allow us to create a more sustainable industry.
The theme of diversity was on my mind throughout the whole project as I wanted to photograph a range of models and see if the choice in models effected the feeling within the image. In one of our tasks we walked down Shepherd Bush Market in small groups to take portrait photographs. I felt that these images were the most interesting outcomes I created from this project. They captured people working and not posing or really engaging with the camera, which made the images feel more natural and unstaged. This, in my opinion, makes a viewer feel as if they are at that location and a part of the image.
I felt that all the key themes of Better Lives helped influence my work within my project. I produced images which I was happy with and through the practical tasks within the lectures, have developed my skills and understanding of photography. I now have a lot more confidence with photography and a wider knowledge of how cameras work.
29th April 2020 @ 9:32 pm
For my final contribution to the Better Lives unit, I will be reviewing the blog posts of one of my peers. For this, I decided I wanted to select someone who had already uploaded all three of them, so that I could read them all and see the development that was made during the unit.
When I came across Zoe Lee’s blogs I was intrigued, as her degree material is similar to my own, as we are both hair and make-up students, but in different branches of the same field, and also, she chose Portrait Photography as her project, which was my second choice. Throughout her three blog posts I feel like she really focused on the Better Lives themes, sustainability, diversity and social responsibility, at different points in time, with diversity being the first. It’s encouraging to see other people in the makeup field talk about the important issues like this because, as students, we’re preparing to be at the front lines of the industry, where hopefully we will be able to influence the ideas of brands, so as to help them expand their range of products. She also raises the very important issue from the point of view of a make-up artist, of having to use disposables and products with less-than-sustainable packaging, in order to keep in line with the necessities of sanitation and trying to find suitable alternatives to more mainstream products. I think an important point to raise when talking about sustainability, which also links to social responsibility, is the use and promotion of cruelty free and vegan brands, even if the artists themselves are not vegan, because it’s a great and impactful way of slowing the flow of the animal exploitation that fuels consumerism. Zoe also talks about Charlotte Tilbury’s contribution to charity, through the sales of one of their products, which I was personally not aware of. This leads me to think about our social responsibility, as makeup artists, to do some research into the brands we are supporting.
When it comes to the third blog, it’s interesting to see how someone doing a different project reacted to the change when traditional teaching had to be switched over to remote teaching. I find it very reassuring that she mentions the fact of struggling with the lack of creativity that came, for a lot of creative people, with the lockdown. I think that, in everyday life, we don’t realise how much external stimulus we are absorbing that contributes to the inspiration we draw from when doing anything creative. I think, for all of us, this was an opportunity to learn how to draw from other things in our lives and find ways to continue or work and studies.
It shows in her work that Zoe really kept the themes in mind, during this whole unit and I hope that every other student who worked on Better Lives will come together to help create a new and improved fashion industry.