Blog Post 3: Realisations, Outcomes and Achievements – Maisie Howse
Over the course of my Better Lives project, Contemporary Portrait Photography, I have noticed a great deal of personal development in my ideas regarding the better lives themes, and also my own growth in stylistic ways. After joining together as a group within this project and collectively looking at examples of photography, practises and techniques, it allowed me to think out of the box in which my style was confined in before, allowing myself to express my views and creativity through methods that best enhance my ideas and using techniques that I hadn’t thought to use before.
Within the project, I ventured into stylistic techniques given to me by my lecturers through the use of examples from photographers who gained recognition for their individual methods and their out of the box way of thinking regarding portraiture; it being much more than just the human body. For me, I learnt that portraiture is more about the element of persona, representing the idea of a persons spirit, personality and soul far more than just showing their features. For example, one of the first pictures I had taken to experiment within this unit was for Home Portraits, I feel, truly captures the essence of a person despite not even being able to see their features; allowing the audience to create an idea of what the person may look like or what they stand for as an individual.
Home Portraits were something I had to grow accustomed to, as in normal circumstances I would have gone out and photographed on location, but due to Covid-19, as mentioned in my previous blog post, I had to work with what was around me within my home. With this in mind, I captured the image displayed below; working with texture, depth and having my sister face away from the camera. This deeply interested me as soon as the idea struck as I had thought of portrait photography being simply a person facing the camera; yet it’s so much more. The bed and the mess upon it directly reflects who my sister is as a person, her style being shown through her clothes whist bringing in the contemporary element through her being sat simply staring at her phone amongst the “mess” surrounding her.
Overall, I feel my experience within Contemporary Portrait Photography has been knowledgeable, especially in the sense of working with what you’ve got instead of more ‘planned’ images. It fits nicely with the Better Lives theme of Sustainability, not using transportation (i.e Cars or Trains), has lead to me finding other means of it, such as; walking or cycling whenever I did go out, or simply just staying indoors which helps the worlds pollution levels even if my actions are minuscule in the grand scheme of the issue. After working the majority of my Better Lives project around the idea of Sustainability, and going through the experience of not actually needing the ‘unnecessary travel’ to function in a creative way, I feel that in whatever practises I do from now, whether it remains in photography or in Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics, I will continue to work in and around the idea of Sustainability.
2nd May 2020 @ 2:24 pm
Reading about your creation process and outcome of the Contemporary Portrait Photography project, make me rethink about the purpose of portrait photography. I truly agree with you that the purpose of portrait photography in contemporary fashion is far more than capturing the individual’s appearance. It should also enhance the person’s personality, spirit, and sentiment, or maybe the photographer’s view as well. I think your experimental photography has achieved these purposes successfully. I love that black and white photograph of your sister very much. All the elements you used in the photography come together—- the texture of blanks and sheets, the choice of mono-color, the bathrobe she is in with undone hairs and cellphone in her hand, the contrast of light and shadow. All these works effetely together to unfold a person, and her story, although viewers may have different takes on what the story would be.
However, I understand why the piece is given the name of Contemporary Teenage State of Mind, and how it addresses the theme of social responsibility. We do sometimes spend too long on our phone, drown in the virtual world meanwhile the environment we physically in is a mess. It not just the addiction but also a way of escape from the harsh reality. Especially these past few years, with the Brexit to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is hard to avoid the dystopian complex brought to the young generation. It’s is stimulating to let me see myself in. I start to reflect on how much time I spend on digital devices each day, especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I think as the young generation we need to get more involved and think about our responsibility in a more conflicting world, and what kind of role we need to take on?
Other than that, I think your working process also reflected on the theme of sustainability. The COVID-19 push to being creative without producing any waste. You have to use the limited props and the scene that available to you under this situation, and it did not necessarily reduce the quality of your outcome. I’m always critical about how much waste artists produced by making their work. Sometimes I went to an exhibition and saw an installation with a great visual effect, but all I have been thinking was all this plastic is going into the landfill. So, I think you made a good example here of being creative without producing waste.
In your future work maybe, you can consider how you can address diversity in photography. I think photography itself is a very effective way to work with this theme. There’s one documentary film I recommend by Ukrainian director Anastasia Mikova and French photographer/director Yann Arthus-Bertrand, called “woman”. They traveled 50 courtiers and interviewed over 3000 women around the world. I hope you enjoyed it.