Blog Post 3
During the pandemic of COVID-19, I believed that my creative process would be hindered and producing work for Contemporary Portrait Photography classes would be difficult. Since all of us are locked away in our homes as well, and photography being a very hands-on and equipment-based unit I was afraid I won’t be able to produce work of great quality. However, during our lectures, I realised that despite the restrictions one has we can find creativity and beauty in ordinary items. As the unit progressed, and I was exposed to different works and I realised that we don’t need a studio to create a project with meaning and quality. For instance, the Home Portraiture lectured focused on works by photographers such as Heather Glazzard who dealt with topics corresponding to queer identity in domestic spaces. Her latest project Porridge was shot at home along with her partner Nora Nord. Their work uses random objects lying around the house merged with formal photography to employ with historical ideas and contemporary discussion regarding gender and sexuality. This made me realise how a space like a home can be transformed to produce shoots and at the same time help portray concepts like identity and relationships.
Another artist we discussed, who went to inspire my project was Nigel Shafran. His work revolves around finding prospective beauty in mundane moments of life. His series, Ruth On Phone Shows a journey over the span of 9 years. All the images put together demonstrates a novel conceptual approach to portrait photography. Seeing, Shafran uses old images that he has been taking, I dug around to found film strips from my childhood. Since they were already developed, I scanned these negatives and played around with the colours on Photoshop to develop my final image. This turned out to be a family portrait of mine when I was merely 6 months old. The inverted effect on the image helped me retain the quality as well as give a sense of nostalgic effect to the photograph.
I believe that even though the pandemic affected our learning in certain manners, I left with skills and knowledge about CPP that wouldn’t have been possible if I was studying in a “normal” state. Having these limitations, I believe that I have overcome my singular point of view of how photography works. I always thought of fashion photography to be these overtly glamourized editorials with high image quality, stylized shoots and professional setups. But I comprehended that it goes beyond that. I developed the knowledge that allows me to use FaceTime, old scrap images and postproduction editing to create photographs with interesting tactility and meanings. We are in an era of art and photography where that glossy editorials are out and images which push the boundaries of what is considered “fashion” is appreciated.
8th May 2020 @ 11:22 am
For my peer review, Akanksha Goyall’s blog reflecting on the work she created for her Contemporary Portrait Photography class, caught my eye. Reason being, I was drawn to this idea of creating imagery with little to no expensive and technical equipment which is normally used behind the scenes of fashion photography shoots. I believe we have learnt a lot about the Better Lives themes during this unit and it was interesting to see Akanksha approach them from a different angle with her third blog post. In regard to the global pandemic we are currently experiencing, we all need to be socially responsible by staying at home and not spreading the COVID-19 virus but in order to do so as a fashion student, we need to adapt and create from home. I have a love for film photography as it carries a sense of nostalgia with it therefore it was heart-warming to read about Akanksha’s experience finding old negatives (which most people chuck in the bin) and repurposing them. I can imagine this to be an emotional event for her, one which most probably wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t needed to make use of ‘at home’ objects for her project. It was also interesting to see her bring the world of technology – using Photoshop, and the world of film and raw photography together in collision as film can easily be neglected as we advance technologically. It is also understandable that many people are finding it difficult at the moment to create, me included. My Better Lives unit focused on the idea of Fashion Activism where we had to create a short moving image for a brand. I found it challenging to collaborate with my group as we were scattered all over the globe, but it is interesting how one makes it work when in a position where they have to. It was reassuring to know someone like Akanksha felt the same way. I also enjoyed reading about her reference to Heather Glazzard’s work “Porridge” emphasising that we are all capable of working from home and how it allows us to focus on themes such as identity and relationships. The ending of the post was impactful as Akanksha went on to say that fashion photography shouldn’t just be about glossy covers and studio lit, perfect imagery but it should be and can be about raw photography, using weird and diverse materials and equipment to create beauty out of ordinary objects. In a way this experience has forced a lot of us to stop relying on the expensive and ‘easy to use’ equipment but rather to challenge ourselves in finding simple objects and repurposing them allowing us to be that little bit more, creative.