Blog Post 4 – Peer Review
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 ‘data overload’ pandemic.
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?