Blog 3

The three main themes of the Better Lives unit were Diversity, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability. I opted for the Contemporary Portrait Photography project and the aim of the project was to experiment and demonstrate how we plan to incorporate the themes of better lives in our fashion practice. We were supposed to showcase the development in our fashion practice through home portraits. 

I have always been interested in portrait photography but lacked technical knowledge about the camera, and the history of portrait photography. I gained tremendous knowledge about the practical and theoretical aspects of portrait photography through the lectures. In the lectures, I gained insights about the key practitioners from diverse backgrounds, which inspired me to develop my style. The technical workshop gave me the confidence to experiment with different settings to develop a distinct photography style. Through this project I learned that photographs are not just works of art but also serve as historical references. Due to Covid-19, the world has been in quarantine and our classes were moved to an online forum. The new outcome of this project was a home portrait. This taught me that mundane activities can be used to draw inspiration and that art can be created in any environment. The lack of equipment and materials forced me to experiment with new ways of working. 

We were told to use our smartphones to create three home portraits: a fashion self-portrait, a portrait of someone else, and a portrait of someone who isn’t there. We were supposed to choose one of them as the outcome. This brief excited me because it gave me a chance to show my life in quarantine through a series of portraits. Portraits are meant to tell a story and I decided to create a self-portrait that gave the viewer a glimpse into my life during quarantine. The original plan was to take a simple portrait of myself using the self-timer on my camera. I decided to shoot in black and white to symbolize vulnerability and rawness. My outcome turned out to be quite different than the original idea. While taking the pictures, my phone moved and some of the images were blurry and distorted. I ended up choosing the blurry image because the distortion depicted exactly how I felt. The image signified the distortion of time, reality, and emotions during quarantine. This project taught me that mistakes are good and can sometimes lead to a better outcome. Through this project, I connected with students from various backgrounds. It also taught me the importance of the internet and how it helps us connect with people during adversity. This unit has inspired me to work towards creating a better future by incorporating the themes of diversity, social responsibility, and sustainability in my fashion practice.