Peer review task

Blog 4

For the review task I chose to comment Huayu Liu’s themes reflection post, which is about sustainability in relation to the fashion world and specifically to photography. Probably this topic captured my attention because we share the same better lives course and I totally agree on what he says he’ll take away from this project. 

Starting off with the acknowledgment on how the world we live in now is definitely far from being completely sustainable, he understands the power we as fashion students and part of the younger generation have in order to try and create a better future and lives for those who come after us.

I found myself sharing the same thought about the fact that what makes a photographer, is the relationship between him and his subject and what he wants to express. Of course, I do think technology has a role in terms of creating beautiful visual works, we could just think about how the evolution of cameras, phones have improved what humans can create with different objects, how the representation of the world has digitally changed in a better way in the last few years. But that does not mean that without the latest model of a technology we are not able portrait something as beautiful. Definitely the use of examples like the Tim walker one gave that idea clearer and I found it related to the concept expressed.

Talking about sustainability I found inspiring the reference to Cindy Sherman and her shooting with elements that can be considered sustainable, I probably would have included a picture to give more the idea of her work, but it is definitely something that can make people reflect on how to use different things in different ways. This also made me think on how I could have used texture of recyclable materials or played with something similar to express the idea of sustainability in the tasks we were asked to complete; but it also made me reflect on how I could improve my future work in a sustainable way. As a student from costume for performance I will remember this and will try to use the concept for future projects, which I think is really important as it will help me to go into a better direction for a better world in general. 

Overall what I get from this post is that Huayu found the sustainable theme really interesting in relation with our contemporary portrait photography project, and in general within the Better Lives unit, something we have in common. What I would have also liked to read is how the diversity and social responsibility themes made him reflect during the process and how he might have related those two to photography, for example using different models or trying to express ideas that might have people reflect on their responsibilities through a visual work. In general, I really enjoyed reading this post and finding elements in common with my personal point of view.