Blog 2- themes reflection
I have always admired the idea that a photograph is individual to the photographer, and how the same subject could be captured differently due to our personal aesthetics. Our backgrounds, culture and identity play a big part on how we view the world and is what differentiates our work from one another, which is what drew me to choose Portrait Photography.
Throughout my personal practice I was mainly interested in capturing people and their individual identities, thus when we were presented with the Better Lives themes, I was instantly drawn to the themes of Diversity. Being a person of color, this is a theme that I am passionate about and wanted to explore a lot throughout my work in Portrait Photography. However, Social responsibility and Sustainability are topics that I have never thought about in previous work and is something that would change how I approach my work in the future.
From the first Portrait Photography Lecture, we were already discussing the theme of diversity and social responsibility, looking at the work of diverse photographers and the message they try to portray through their portraits. I was particularly interested in the work of Nikki S Lee, a Korean Self Portrait Photographer, who embeds herself in her surroundings by taking on different identities to fit into her environment. She is an example of someone who heavily explores the theme of Diversity as she embodies different social groups in the world, from Korean schoolgirl’s, to seniors to black and Hispanic communities. However, as much as it is interesting to see the representation of all these groups, I was concerned with her use of Blackface/ Brownface in her Hip-Hop and Hispanic projects. This is one of the issues that can occur within the exploration of diversity; without proper research it is easy to step into cultural appropriation or cultural insensitivity, which is something that I always try to avoid in my work.
I think that the concept of social responsibility became more relevant to me once the whole world fell into a lockdown. Social responsibility has never been more apparent, by having people stay at home to prevent the risk of someone else’s health and safety. I have observed a small divide between those who are taking the pandemic seriously and those who still try to “live their life” by travelling and meeting up with friends, which gave me the realization that there will always be someone who doesn’t care, no matter how serious the situation is. As an artist, I was thinking about the social responsibility that artists have in our current times. As content creators should we be using this time to focus on getting more of our work out there, to distract people from the dullness of lockdown? Or will people consider this selfish and insensitive? Personally, seeing artists releasing new content is what is keeping me going right now. Especially work that is completely unrelated to quarantine.
Similarly, the theme of sustainability is something that is going to change my work in the future. Along with the pandemic came this time of the D.I.Y, where people are using what they have around them to create, minimizing our product consumption. Over the last few week’s, I have developed a massive interest in making my own clothes out of my old ones and have considered doing this for future work where styling will be involved. Overall, social responsibility and sustainability is something that I will implement more of in my future work, as I think naturally a lot of people will after this pandemic is over.
Kim, E., 2016. Nikki S. Lee’s “Projects”—And The Ongoing Circulation Of Blackface, Brownface In “Art”. [online] contemptorary. Available at: <https://contemptorary.org/nikki-s-lees-projects-and-the-ongoing-circulation-of-blackface-brownface-in-art/> [Accessed 1 May 2020].
Payne, K., 2020. 19/20 Better Lives SMC › Log In. [online] 1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk. Available at: <https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/author/19033085/> [Accessed 1 May 2020].