BLOG 4
After reading through several blogs of students reflections on the Better Lives projects, I settled on reflecting on Rada McNally-Marchenkov’s second blog post.
Rada starts by expressing her admiration for the fact that “a photograph is individual to the photographer…/Our backgrounds, culture and identity play a big part” I agree with this statement and I think it that it resonates with me personally; I try to incorporate the idea of identity and my own cultural identity as a Thai woman into my work often and have found that this has really affected my photography style and aesthetic. I think it is important in such a diverse world to express this diversity within the media we produce and to learn things about people from their work.
Unlike Rada I did not take Portrait Photography as my Better lives option however it was my first choice, this made me even more inclined to read her blog to perhaps learn something I didn’t get the chance to learn in my Better Lives choice. It is interesting to see Rada discuss the theme of diversity and her opinion on photographer Nikki S Lee. After researching the artist in my own time I did also find her work interesting, however found myself also having the same concerns as Rada. Although Lee’s work are great examples of exploring different social groups at the time, would these photos be appropriate or have positive feedback in this modern day society where cultural appropriation and lack of cultural understanding is so apparent in many artists work? It was nice to see Rada’s honest opinion of this visual artist, and to appreciate it but also criticise it from a modern standpoint.
Through reading Rada’s blog it is clear that she already has a strong moral compass and is inputting that within the work she already produces. As well as discussing the theme of diversity, Rada also reflected on the current situation of lockdown and social responsibility. I too, have touched upon this subject within a blog post of my own, talking about it on a more commercial point of view. However, it was also very engaging to see Rada discuss individuals social responsibility or the lack of. Within her blog you see her view on the responsibility creators have during this time, personally, I too prefer to see content that is not related to the social situation. It is nice to see brands such as Jacquemus still creating online content despite the pandemic and doing shoots via Facetime. It is inspiring to see how creatives have changed their way of working around the social climate and are still thriving in these conditions where normally, it would be difficult to produce work due to the lack of equiptment/models/garments etc. I think it is important for artists to create in order to distract but also create in order to enlighten people on the situation, and I think this depends on the artist themselves and what they feel is necessary to them and their consumers.
Lastly, Rada has shown that she has reflected on the Better Lives themes personally and has decided that “sustainability is something that is going to change [her] work in the future”. Like many others, she has used the pandemic to her advantage and pushed herself to create with things she already owns. This idea of recycling something and creating something new is something that I also inputted into my Better lives final outcome, and it is something I will also attempt to carry on in future works.
Overall, Rada has explored the themes of sustainability, social responsibility and diversity well within her blog. She has discussed all three themes and explored them in her own way, findings ways to connect them to her personal work and implement them into future work.