Better Lives Blog 3
The project I picked and was looking forward to take was Contemporary Portrait Photography. I remained impressed and felt like it was relating well to the whole concept behind Better Lives throughout the whole part of this unit. Unfortunately, nobody was prepared for a pandemic getting in the way and since Photography requires equipment, hands-on practices and more real-life interaction, it was more of a challenge to finish this project with a whole understanding of Contemporary Portrait Photography in relation to the themes of this unit especially on the practical part.
Nevertheless, both Daniel Treacy and Lillian Wilkie have tried their best at delivering the right content.
In the very first lecture Daniel introduced us to this project by mentioning notable people in the world of Photography. This part felt extremely crucial. It set the right tone. Here already the themes were apparent. With Hippolyte Bayard’s self-portrait in which he stages his own death due to lack of recognition for his work, photos of guest workers in central Europe taken by August Sander, images inspired by historic moments for Africa captured by Samuel Fosso, to pictures of “invisible” workers photographed by Irving Penn; the Better Lives themes seemed very detectable already. When we speak of Fashion, we think of catwalks, big brands, aesthetic models and desirable clothes. We forget to highlight the fact that Fashion is more than that. People seem to be forefront in this project. The photography projects we were shown, fit perfectly. Not only were the mentioned artists people of different genders, ethnicities, backgrounds etc., so were their subjects and visions. I felt especially stricken by Nikki S. Lee’s “Projects” in which she blends in with the environments chosen to photograph.
On another day, we were given the task to roam around Shepherd’s Bush Market to take pictures. I was impressed by my peer’s work, some of them had managed to bring people usually invisible to us to the foreground. It made me think of empathy within the topic of social responsibility and perspectives. Some of my classmates had focused on featuring ways of dress at the market. It reminded me of “Questioning Identity” in Lucy Orta’s “The Sustainable Fashion Handbook” in which she speaks of ways of expressing our “visions of the world”. These pictures gave us flashbacks to the lectures on sustainability.
During quarantine, we were asked to take portraits at home. Here, too, I was more interested in how others were approaching this assignment. I think the reason lies in my interest to adapt different perspectives to my work in the future. Sometimes we get so stuck in our own visions that we forget that others exist too and considering this could solve issues, bring innovation and make it easier to understand one and other to be inclusive in representation, aware of our powers in society and conscious of our impact on Ecology.