Project Outcomes and Personal Development: Blog Post 3
Fashion and photography are inseparable entities – throughout the years the cumbersome process behind a fashion photograph has reduced to a snap on the smartphone accessible to anyone. Content creating and sharing is no longer limited to certain professions but something that can be done anywhere, anytime, by anyone. Especially at a vulnerable time like this where our sole form of communication is restricted to digital formats, the messages that these simple images shot at home can be more powerful than ever. Through studying contemporary portrait photography, it has given me a new perspective of portrait photography and what I see as a subject through the lens.
The project brief for contemporary portrait photography, home portraits, came as a creative reaction to the worldwide pandemic. Models, photographers and other industry professionals alike have produced self-portraits from the comfort of their homes under social distancing. This project allows us to neglect the technicalities of a digital camera for a minute in favour of the smartphone. The immediacy and fluidity that an iPhone production allows from shooting, editing to uploading – is an indication of how we will move forward with online content sharing in the future (as of now, TikTok is already a good example of this sensation). By gaining full control over producing content online, it gives a larger and more equal platform for people alike to express themselves.
Through experimentation, it became clear to me that I did not resonate with the idea of traditional self-portraits. It was difficult to set up a background in a 17m2 studio apartment clustered by clutter. While looking for a way around this problem, I also wanted to avoid the stereotypical approach to home portraits while still giving it a sense of identity. Instead of creating something with high resolution and a complex rationale, I opted for the opposite. In a time of gloom and melancholy, I wanted to create something almost a bit silly to ridicule at. One of the images I produced showed a comical face constructed by my personal collection of jewelry. Sunglasses as eyes; hairclips as brows; a watch as the jaw; earrings as ears, and a ring as a protruding mouth smoking a cigarette. This ‘self-portrait’ doesn’t feature me physically and was my solution to a narrow and restricted space.
My personal development was inspired by the ‘performance in photography’ lecture by Daniel Treacy. In particular, the audience part where domestic objects were incorporated to create quirky imagery that allowed participation by the audience. The use of jewelry in my case was a simple arrangement that required no waste of materials and expressed an action performed in self isolation. The act of smoking and frowning in this context represents the frustration and stress that many others share in this pandemic. I wanted to develop a way to express common emotions through the domestic objects found in my every day. The project brief of home portraits provokes us to adapt and create in this whole new social context under Covid-19, furthermore, consider the emotional transition and how it affects our future creative process of communication post pandemic.
Treacy, D. (2020) ‘Performance in Photography’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 20 April.