Sarah Ejionye Adigwe

About Sarah Ejionye Adigwe

Posts by Sarah Ejionye Adigwe:

Blog Post 4 – Peer Review

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Waste

I think you explored the theme of sustainability within your practise really well, in particular how you’ve pointed out some of the major pollutants within the make-up industry (such as plastics and disposable products) and came up with solutions on how to be more sustainable through using microfiber towels instead. It really shows a conscious effort to take what you’ve learnt from the lectures and use it to grow and improve, as well as that you’ve researched eco-friendly alternatives once you’ve discovered what you currently use is sustainable. 

In addition to this, you’ve mentioned how although the make-up industry is not as polluting as fashion clothing that the waste from this industry still negatively affects the planet and needs to be addressed as well. It has also made me consider the ways in which the make-up industry can improve, and for feedback I would say that it would be good to elaborate more on what eco-friendly alternatives there are for make-up products, or maybe go into more depth on how damaging the make-up industry is on the environment. 

One thing that I think you could improve on was that you mentioned well-being briefly but I think it would’ve been good to mention this aspect of better lives more in this post, as I think it not only relates to sustainability very well due to its links to capitalism and consumerism, but also how the perception of beauty in society affects well-being. You could’ve talked about how make-up and well-being are related, what kind of impact the beauty industry has on the well-being of those who take part in it and the relation of constant spending to improve well-being on the environment as a whole. 

Overall I think this was a really good look into how you can improve or update your practise through learning more about sustainability, and it’s great you’ve decided to take a conscious effort to change how you work to improve the environment because of this theme. 

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Blog Post 3 – Project Outcome Fashion Activism

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For our creative direction project, we had the theme of fashion activism and had to create a moving image campaign for the brand Nubian Skin. At first within our group, we had planned to do a short advert-style film using models and a voiceover, similar to videos they had done before. Initially we struggled, as this original idea didn’t include all of our skill sets and would’ve been quite difficult and time confusing to organise. In addition, all our group agreed that while their product and concept was very interesting and successfully done (nude underwear for all skin tones) their branding was quite stale, outdated and perhaps lacking in imagination. We decided as a group to rethink how we wanted to present the brand, and try to figure out a way to modernise the brand while keeping their signature style. 

Through doing experiments with the images on the brand’s instagram, we found a way to create a really interesting moving image campaign that utilized all of the group’s skills. We decided to use the skills of both the two illustrators and myself as a photographer to create animated gifs that would be fun, playful and colourful while still keeping within the colour scheme and natural toned aesthetic of the brand.


(A mock-up of how our GIFs would look in Nubian Skin’s instagram feed)

In this way we managed to get over the dilemma of including the group skills by having everyone involved in the editing as well as suggestions for how things could look, as well as caption writing and instagram layouts. We agreed as a group that we would create all of the content of the moving image ourselves, to be able to have work we can still include in our portfolio as well as post freely on social media. Some aspects were quite difficult, due to the lockdown our original plan of using a model was adapted to the situation, and we discussed as a group whether to continue with the idea or not. Ultimately we modified the concept to still work without a model, and this ended up being much more time efficient and gave the gifs a more playful and unique vibe. 

Through this project, not only did I face challenges such as trying to photograph in a location I usually wouldn’t (my house) but communicating over long distances as our group was across the world in many different time zones. Though it was difficult for us to coordinate due to this, I feel our project really benefited from us staying in a group and producing the final moving image together. Not only did it allow us to bounce ideas off each other rather than working without having any feedback most of the time, but also meant we could combine our skills to create a piece of work even better than if we had done so individually. Through discussion, we not only included a racial aspect of diversity but also body size and hair types, which I feel really showcase the theme of diversity really successfully. 

Moving image link:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/9ae54b6e-fb0f-404e-9e59-fd7891cf6741

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  1. Louise Nabridnyj: For my final blog post of peer-reviewing, I chose to comment on your post, as I was initially really intrigued…

Blog Post 2 – Creative Practice Reflection

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The theme of diversity really stuck with me throughout the lectures I attended, and one that I feel really influenced how I think about my practice was “Representation” by Teleica Kirkland, in particular the focus on how wide ranging the theme of diversity is. During our Fashion Activism session we had to create a brand identity for our group as if we were a creative agency, and came up with the name “spare parts” with a focus on diversity and sustainability, as we had decided to look at aspects of diversity that were often forgotten or not given as much attention. 

This made me reflect greatly on my practise as a photographer, as I often used to mainly associate diversity with race and has made me want to really try to include a wider variety of people in my photographs. Coming from a black African background, much of my work revolves around the black diaspora and researching lesser known aspects of our culture in a way that allows me to both learn new things while also representing diverse cultures outside of western society. Including a wider spectrum of diversity, such as body shape, ability, age, gender and sexuality I feel will not only enrich my practise as I learn about people different than me, but also work towards providing more diverse representation in fashion photography.

In addition, rather than just including diverse bodies and people without much thought, what I’ve learned about representation from the lectures and from forming our groups is the sensitivity towards the issue of diversity that is arguably overlooked in the fashion industry. Diversity is often seen as a way to improve brand image or as a marketing tool rather than something which should be a given. With this knowledge, I’m really encouraged to expand my practise through photographing groups of people who I usually don’t or have never photographed before. Just as I’m committed to showing many aspects of black culture, I feel fashion photography is far more beneficial to society when diversity is taken beyond surface level representation. Seeing marginalised groups in positions of status, luxury or as symbols of beauty rather than negative stereotypes is something very needed in western society.

Another aspect is looking at diversity behind the camera, and one immediate way I can promote this is by doing self-portraiture or photographing fellow photographers and image creators working to be in the fashion industry. It’s something that is still lacking greatly in fashion, which can often result in misrepresentation or stereotypes being placed onto models of colour. Putting more emphasis on people behind the camera can help to encourage a wider range of people to pursue photography, and this allows more people to be able to create in a welcoming environment and pursue job roles they wouldn’t have considered before due to lack of diversity in the field. 

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  1. Grace Robertson: PEER REVIEW: Blog I’m reviewing: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/03/blog-post-2-creative-practice-reflection/ I chose to focus my peer review blog post on Sarah Ejionye Adigwe’s Creative…

Blog Post 1 – Lecture Reflection : Representation and Perspectives

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I found the lectures series as a whole very informative, as I was introduced to themes I wouldn’t have researched myself such as inclusivity in fashion, empathy and well-being. Two lectures I particularly resonated with however were Cher Potter’s “ Perspectives” and Teleica Kirkland’s “Representation” which both explored aspects of the theme of Diversity. 

“Perspectives” was enlightening as it looked at design outside of a western perspective, not only going into depth with African design and fashion movements but discussing how UAL as an institution can decolonise its curriculum and look further than the west. Not only this but I found it really relevant to my practise, through learning of the South African Sartists use of social media to link current fashion trends (such as streetwear) to historical cultural motifs in South Africa (Iziquaza earplugs) it made me really question how fashion photography can be used not only to promote a socially positive message, but also encourage protest and change. 

One project from them that particularly stood out to me in the lecture was their  Historical Reenactments series (2012). While hunting for second – hand designer clothes, the Sartists started to discover old postcards and photographs that weren’t in the history books of South Africa and in the process discovered little fragments of untold history. They began reenacting these fragments through photography. Their practise was described by lecturer Cher Potter as “a protest against forgetting” presenting how a group with little resources managed to revive part of their history. 

Another really interesting aspect was a look into cultural appreciation in the “Representation” lecture, which is often given less attention than cultural appropriation or sometimes confused with it. In particular I enjoyed seeing a project from the collective Wafrica, which involved a collaboration of African and Japanese artists coming together to design a Kimono with African prints, as it showed how two diverse cultures can come together and benefit each other introducing an exciting new borderless yet culturally rich addition to the fashion industry.

Overall these lectures really got me thinking about more unique ways of promoting diversity in fashion, rather than just a range of skin tones but also cultural diversity, heritage which bring along new ways of thinking. Having not only the people represented in fashion being diverse but also the actual content of the representation being global, as well as people working behind the scenes to create fashion content such as photographers, stylists, make-up artists being diverse can only benefit fashion. 

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