Blog 3, Project Outcomes and Personal Development
Throughout the Better Lives unit, Contemporary Portrait Photography, I have learnt a wide array of new skills and developed on previously existing ones. Despite already having a background within photography itself, I have strengthened my knowledge on portraiture artists, technical skills and different ways to portray modern-day issues within my own work. In this sense, this specifically has developed my skills in relation to the Better Live’s theme of Social Responsibility.
One area I would like to highlight is that of the incredible lecturers we have had the opportunity to be taught by. Danny Treacy and Mark Kean are two photographers who have truly inspired me with their unique and original ideas, which are depicted throughout their photography work. One topic area that I was fascinated by was Danny Treacy’s ‘Them’ project; Treacy went into the river Thames in low tide to find items ranging from clothing to human bones from the Roman era. He then styled these garments on a plain dark background, with the model’s face covered. This project ‘investigates the precariousness and vulnerability of the forgotten and the voiceless while conjuring up images of the fantasized other, in other words, the monster… disappearing entirely under the assembled clothes, he relinquishes all form of individual representation in favour of haunting archetypal images.’ (Ref 1) To touch on this lightly, I found this very inventive and thought it linked rather well to the better lives’ themes of social responsibility and diversity, as the artist is bringing attention to the forgotten which includes clothing from all eras and backgrounds, thus making the finished outcome diverse. The sustainability aspect comes from the sourcing of the garments from the river Thames, as Treacy is fundamentally helping the environment by removing these items from the water and means that the cost of styling was little if not nothing.
Mark Kean opened my eyes to film photography. Although I had a strong interest in this topic area, Kean educated us all on aperture, shutter speed and other technical aspects of film photography. In more depth, I was enlightened by his previous editorial work for key magazines such as interview magazine, the gentle woman etc. One project I draw inspiration from is a recent commission for Fantastic Man. Kean’s work here draws attention the way in which surroundings can alter the theme of an image or draw emphasis to certain stylistic features.
I have found this course very eye-opening and it has most certainly changed the way I work. In my most recent self-portrait, I enlisted everything I had learned and am very pleased with the outcome. Due to the current covid-19 isolation situation, I found post-production very important; by exaggerating certain features such as the contrast from the blue tones to the orange hues, it made for a more pop-art effect which was my end goal. Also, the course has allowed me to make the most of surroundings and limited tools- this is brought to life through the final outcome as primarily all that was available was a small blue background, one orange and limited garments.
Ref 1, Treacy, D., 2020. Essays – Danny Treacy. [online] Dannytreacy.com. Available at: <https://www.dannytreacy.com/writing/essays/> [Accessed 1 May 2020].
2nd May 2020 @ 11:33 pm
Peer Review
Personally I am so interested in photography as well, because I think photo shooting is the final link in a fashion design system, which is the way to show the fashion production to audiences. I chose Holly Morris’s third blog (https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/01/blog-3-project-outcomes-and-personal-development-3/) because my eyesight was caught by the photo a lady is surrounding by hands holding oranges in her blog.
Holly analysed the connection between Better Lives themes and her contemporary portrait photography project by giving the example of Danny Treacy’s ‘them’ shooting project. she introduced what is the shooting about and how did Danny style the model and background in that shoot. The idea “investigates the precariousness and vulnerability of the forgotten and the voiceless while conjuring up images of the fantasised other, in other words, the monster” is the theme of the project. I have resonance when she mentioned that Treacy’s work reflected with social responsibility and sustainability and based on her analysation I have some my own understanding as well. Treacy’s work reminds people of the forgotten group of people in the communities which reveals a social issues and he uses old assembled clothes to do the styling work, which inspired me a lot— fashion photography is not just limited in the fancy garments, we also can use second-hand clothes assembled ourselves to express our theme and aesthetic, so from this point, portrait photography carries sustainability as well. Holly gave a short statement on diversity, however she could given more statement about this point, I would be more clear about the how portrait photography refer to diversity.
In the end she introduced us her process on her project practice, though her statement, I know the importance of post-production in portrait photography. She used only one orange creating the surrounding background, and the color tone responses the blue background as well, which is so vivid and energetic. Whats more, her make-up corresponds to the background color as well, the whole make-up aesthetic is in a vintage style. It is really an amazing work under the lockdown situation.
4th May 2020 @ 5:20 pm
Peer Review-
I have chosen to peer review Holly Morris’ Blog Post 3, Project Outcomes and Personal Development https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/01/blog-3-project-outcomes-and-personal-development-3/. Holly has evidenced how her research into photographers Dan Treacy and Mark Kean has created inspiration for her own photography work. I can see links between certain themes that are portrayed in Treacy’s, Kean’s and Holly’s photographs. She highlighted that Treacy’s ‘Them’ project has elements that present diversity, in his depiction of a silhouette that unites clothing and items from the Roman era. Holly’s project seems to have a greater focus on the themes of social responsibility and sustainability. These are particularly significant, and are consistently and successfully depicted in Holly’s blog post, especially in her self-portrait; through finding alternative uses for resources that she already owned. There has therefore been no money spent, no unnecessary travel, no waste, and ultimately no harm to the environment. This is also evident in the fact that she only had one orange to work with, but has cleverly composed multiple images from different perspectives to give the illusion that there are many. Holly has resourcefully considered ways in which she could work with limitations, while at the same time, making responsible choices such as; choosing to take her photo rather digitally rather than on film, which then allowed her to edit it post-production. Her digital editing skills have enabled her to pull off a vintage, grainy affect (complimented by her 60’s eye makeup and styling) which overall has aesthetic features that are somewhat similar to those of a film photograph. Sustainable thinking like this is something that is often under-considered by photographers when creating work, such as; the processing of film uses many toxic chemicals like hydroquinone, phenidone and dimezone (these often end up being washed down drains, thus negatively effecting aquatic life and fauna). Silver is also a massively polluting ingredient that is commonly used when processing film. Eco-friendly professional photographer Tamea Burd advises the importance of making informed choices before getting photo prints made, and the impacts of film photography. She is a great person to look to for more ideas about how to be more sustainable in photography. In this instance, Holly has proved that a great outcome can be achieved in a sustainable way, as she has considered the use of eco-friendly, natural materials and resources. Holly has expressed her influences and how she will consider them in her future work, and I believe that her project has successfully reflected upon and presented the better lives themes in an encouraging way. Upon reflection of myself and my own work, I think I focused mainly on the themes of Sustainability and Social Responsibility and somewhat neglected Diversity. I aim to further educate myself and look more into diversity in the fashion world. Personally, I have struggled to include everything into a small blog-post style format, so this is a skill that I also aim to improve and develop. In addition, I would say that reading my peer’s blogs has been so interesting and inspiring to see everyone’s ideas. I think that this entire project has positively developed my views and has encouraged me to make more efforts in many ways.
10th May 2020 @ 3:58 pm
BLOG POST 4:PEER REFLECTION (HOLLY NORRIS )
Somewhat, what attracted me into reading this specific blog post, was the image that gave a professional appeal. First image depicted a vibe of the model being practically ‘scanned’ on the printer and the shadow silhouettes played a big role in creating that mysterious vibe. It was “Them” a project shot by Danny Treacy which I thought was Holly’s work. However, going back to the main point, the individual has written about their project outcome and personal development which was a second reason as in my perspective, being able to reflect, self-criticize and be original is crucial especially working in creative fields such as fashion. I was interested to know, what made Holly inspired and what theme she developed her work along with and has her final outcome linked back to her research.
Moreover, contemporary portrait photography was something I wanted to do as well as fashion activism therefore this blog will also give me some knowledge of what they have studied, compare two and finally also learn something new.
Firstly, Holly stated that social responsibility and diversity are the main factor of what she wants to show within her work. She was highly influenced by Danny Treacy’s work where he found various items including clothes washed out on the shore near Thames and used it to assemble a garment for the final shoot. I agree with the factors she pointed about social responsibility as Treacy used washed out clothing and by that has helped reduce shore clutter and proved there is a room for sustainability in photography by reusing garments whether the classic buying & disposing. I particularly liked her use of “vulnerability of the forgotten” since the items that were found are from different eras and as old as the “Roman era” which I found fascinating as well. That closely made me think that she has used the knowledge given in order to use it within the better lives unit and help her develop her personal work.
Secondly, Holly has stated that she was able to learn new photography based skills during her lectures with Mark Kean and how she was also inspired by his editorial works where she stated her fascination with “how surroundings can change the theme of the image”.
This has led me to a conclusion, that Mark Kean has inspired her personal work more as her “self-portrait” would look completely un pop-artist and somewhat surrealistic if there were no hands holding orange in presence. Her work has proven the use of the inspiration of the surroundings in this case hand editing the theme would have been completely different. Despite a lack of tools due to COVID-19, Holly has used bright tones such as yellow and blue that she found at home, supported her imitation of pop-art and in my perspective, linked to Danny Treacy’s photography, where colour palettes consisted of bright colours as well as dark ones. I like that the work was completely different to the inspirations, it had her unique colours with the influence which you can also see. Overall, Holly’s work was easy and interesting to read, she has talked about her inspirations and how she used them within better lives themes and taught some useful information about some photographers that the reader can look at.