BLOG 3 – Project reflection & Outcomes
From the perspective of a Fashion PR and media person, the way a product / scene / concept presents itself visually is a key component that contributes to success. That’s exactly the reason I chose Contemporary Portrait Photography for my Better Lives course.
Up until the lockdown, being part of the photography class was an extremely interesting experience for me. Firstly, my expectations regarding the course differed from what the structure really was about. For example, instead of acquiring a new palette of technical skills, the group was introduced to the importance of conceptualisation in photography. Moreover, using a variety of limitation, such as relying on our phones and capturing Shepard’s Bush in a whole new light was of much aid to our creative expansion. Immersing ourselves in the local culture surrounding our university was a rewarding experience, followed by a discussion with the tutors and peers regarding what we created.
However, because of Covid-19, a majority of students had to return to their “past” lives at home. If leaving London, one of the most active, dynamic and multicultural capitals in the world, wasn’t hard enough, being quarantined in locked down cities certainly was. Most of the times, setting certain workspace parameters can improve creativity, and the limits set a space for evolving in innovative ways. Personally, that was not true for my photographic journey. Essentially, the first few weeks in self isolation were a blessing in disguise, finally being able to spend time on my musical creations, catching up with university work and enjoying time with my parents.
Unfortunately, there was one catch. Seeing the same computer, same garden, same people everyday made life seem a bit dull. It is true that beauty can be found in having time to smell fresh roses from the back yard and waking up at 12 P.M. without needing to do much everyday, but this type of schedule really made me question if creating anything was still worth it. Things became uninspiring, and the lack of energetic exchange took a great toll on my perspective. The online human interactions were artificial and mainly lacked depth, and the worst thing of them all was certainly having Coronavirus conversations with everybody, reiterating the same questionable ideas onto Facetime calls with poor connection
The project I did was one of the few things I could think about at my parents’ place in the countryside : photographing the normality of caging animals in certain cultures, only now, it is normal for us, people, to be caged as well. Although animals do not have a blog to post their feelings on, we can certainly know how it feels to live like them, at least for a brief amount of time. Maybe this times will make us question the morality of zoos and non-bio farming more in depth.
At the end of the day, some people really found motivation to immerse themselves in new universes of ideas, but I couldn’t. The reason we do university, go to work in physical spaces, have meetings is not because we want to exchange cold information, but because we need energy. We need to vibe, feel, add emotion even to the most common cigarette breaks at our jobs, or those courses during which we spend more time gossiping with our friends than listening to the teacher.
11th May 2020 @ 9:30 am
I have chosen to review Stefan-Adrian Cimpeanu’s Blog post 3 for my peer review. Stefan is a fellow member of the Fashion PR and Communications course, yet he chose to cover Contemporary Portrait Photography, whereas I chose Activism, therefore I wanted to see how someone from my course found a different Better Lives unit.
Stefan’s blog post concerned his project reflection & outcomes from Contemporary Portrait Photography, from both before and during COVID-19.For me, it was hard to see how he had brought in the Better Lives themes during my first read-through, however, upon closer inspection, it was clear that they were all engaged with appropriately when necessary.
Firstly, it is hard to convey any kind of meaningful opinion on sustainability in photography during a time of crisis, but I believe that Stefan touched on this theme when describing how he missed the wider world and immersing himself in local culture by being trapped at home – this emphasizes why we need to be more sustainable, as without an increased focus on sustainability we will no longer be able to experience these delights.
Secondly, the theme of diversity was tackled very well. Stefan stressed the importance of a diverse portfolio for photographers, be it in skillset, location, personnel, or conceptualization, and how hard he was finding university life without any of these variables in place. He discussed the benefits of setting “workplace parameters” and how these can often improve creativity, which allowed him to thrive in the opening weeks of self-isolation, focussing on a diverse range of topics, from music production and mixing, to simply spending time with his parents – therefore showing the importance of diversity in our lives once again.
Now, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Stefan’s reflection, for me, was how well he articulated the negative feelings encountered during these uncertain times. The lack of any clear schedule in our lives is taking its toll on all of us, and Stefan asked himself if “creating anything was a still worth it”. That is a thought that has crossed my mind also, as when hundreds of people are dying every day in your country, university work pales into insignificance. Stefan did persevere, however, and ended up photographing his parents’ dog, caged up in the house – normality in most cultures, as he rightly points out, but he also links this normality of being caged up to how we are currently feeling whilst in lockdown, which I thought was a neat way of linking themes of social responsibility into his work.
In conclusion, whilst overall I believe Stefan’s piece, and subsequent work, to be of a high standard, I did not agree with his closing point about why we go to university, as for me, the university is a place to learn, get qualifications, and then go out into the working world. That may seem a quite bleak overview, however, given the structure of LCF’s courses, it’s hard to see university any other way. That being said, the fact that Stefan views university life so differently once again stresses the importance of surrounding oneself with diverse opinions in everyday life.
References:
– Cimpeanu, S (2020) https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/09/blog-3-project-reflection-outcomes/ (accessed 10th May 2020)