Blog Post 4: Reflection on Peer’s work

Thinking about the peer review, I was looking for someone who might bring a fresh perspective in the field that I work with. Yen-Fang Lo in her Blog 3 described her approach to the final outcome of the Contemporary Portrait Photography project which appeared appealing to me. Additionally, I could relate to her as everything she described was a documentation of 14 days in quarantine and the lockdown perspective that I also have gone through when I came back to my country. I think that current pandemic reality forced us to think more creatively what Yen proved by her capability to adapt to the unexpected circumstances and showcased in her work through a sense of absence and intimacy.

Yen’s observation that “physical contacts have already been missed much more earlier, as the internet has been widely used in the digital world” is a statement that I agree with. Although we’ve been living in a digital world for quite a while now, today we can feel more than ever that it is not enough to substitute touch, interaction and real human emotions.  Consequently, I think that the reality that we found ourselves in makes us appreciate people that we could interact with before the lockdown. Yen, by referring to Jane Ogden’s article, emphasized the nature of our problem with self-acceptance and current changes occurring in the fashion industry with diffusing more diverse types of silhouettes.  Accordingly, she decided to use her own and her mother’s body as a canvas to reflect her idea of intimacy and diversity. From my personal experience, I know how intimidating is photographing one of your members of the family. It is playing with the notion of discomfort and investigating how far you can move in such an intimate relationship. Besides the theoretical side of her body of work, she also emphasizes the technical aspect of what proves her proactive and experimental approach to the final outcome. Starting from lighting, composition or layout and ending up on playing with the body itself to “strengthen that feeling of touchiness” resulted in really compelling images with the potential for continuation. In the end, we can see the ability of analytical thinking as she tries to see the pros and cons of the current reality with an emphasis on the opportunity to commune closer with a medium such as photography.

To sum up, I think that Yen did a really great job by responding to the Better Lives theme of diversity. She proved her active and experimental approach towards the project by connecting her own idea with Better Lives Theme and current pandemic reality. Additionally, subjects she chose feels versatile and boosted the feeling of intimacy. Playing with the daylight and body as a more abstract form, the outcome indicates her creativity and potential for being an accountable and responsible image-maker.