Shanyun Luo

After reading the blog written by different students, I found that everyone has a different understanding of the theme and content of the course of better lives. While I was reading the blog of Xiuyijian Jiang, I found that the theme of her project is closely related to the theme of better lives contact. It was talked about how the developing a character project changed her mind to think about the future career and how did the cultural sustainability and diversity impact her.

After I read her blog carefully, I found that she gave us an example to talk about how she thought. She mentions that in the fashion industry, some organizations call on people to donate clothes they don’t wear, and achieve sustainable development through donations, which can reduce a lot of domestic waste. Although the starting point of this initiative is good, some people will worry about it and fear that the clothes are not clean, and these clothes may not be properly disinfected and washed after recycling. Here she talked about the role of the media in this event. She believes that the media should be more active in reporting such incidents and tell people about the benefits of sustainability. As a part of living on earth, everyone is closely related to sustainability. I agree with her point of view. Media reports can affect people to a great extent, and environmental issues are related to each of us. Now, the speed of melting glaciers around the world is accelerating year by year. Maybe the people we live in cities can’t feel much change, but the climate change is also accompanied by it. Various issues remind us that sustainability is a very important issue, which is also one of the topics mentioned in better lives. Finally, she mentioned the feeling of participating in this project. In addition to being able to learn new skills, she can also remind people to protect the environment by creating images, that information can be delivered to people through social media.

I could see her passion and ambition through her writing, I think she has seriously considered the relationship between sustainability and the fashion industry. Though continuous learning and thinking can we change our future lifestyle and attitude. After reading her writing, it’s mainly mentions sustainability, but I think the other two better lives themes can also be combined in this blog. It’s good to see people have different view about the better lives themes-sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. Through the better lives course, I have learned a lot of new knowledge, and will have a huge impact on my future life.

Link: https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/10/blog-post-2-28/

Reflecting on my better lives project I was really satisfied with my final outcome, especially in this period of epidemic outbreak. During this project, I had learned how to present my outcome by participated in contemporary portrait photography lectures. At the beginning of this project, I met many different types of photographers through lectures. Although their styles are different, I got a lot of inspiration in their works. 

In the lecture, the teacher introduced us to several different types of photography works, some about self-portraits and some about landscapes. At first, in my understanding, I thought that only self-portraits were considered portraits. Later, through explanations, I learned that the original daily landscape photos were also considered to be a type of portrait. In addition, I also learned about the photographs of different era, from the black and white photos to the current colour photos. Through this series of historical evolution, I have a deeper understanding of portrait. Among the different seminars, what impressed me most is the discussion about fashion portrait, how to take a representative photo? We need to consider many aspects, such as scenes, clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and photo concept, etc. As a creative direction student, taking photos is also one of the skill needs to know. Through these lectures, I learned a lot of shooting skills and will use them to improve my future project. 

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, many places have implemented the policy of home isolation, and it has become difficult to take pictures outside, but this has not affected my creation. My final outcome was a landscape shot taken with a Polaroid. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, and I saw the weather outside the window was very clear. Because of the social isolate, I have been serval days didn’t go out which I feel a little bit depressed. What I want to express in this work is a contrast between the weather outside and my emotion. Although the epidemic affected all aspects of our lives, it also gave me a new perspective on the future life. Combined with the theme of better lives, although my work shows a boring life of quarantine, I think that not going out is actually a social responsibility. Combined with the theme of better lives, although my work shows a boring life of segregation at home, I think that not going out is actually a social responsibility. Especially in this special period, many front-line workers are struggling for the epidemic at this time. All we can do is reduce unnecessary outings, reduce the risk of infection, and reduce the burden on staff. Through this epidemic and the knowledge that I have learned, my attitude towards the future life has changed a lot. 

Fig. 1 Isolating portrait (2020)

Reference: Shanyun, L. (2020) Isolating portrait. [Photograph]

Before I studied this unit, I knew little about sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. After I attended all lectures of better lives, I had a deeper understanding of these three topics. While studying at LCF, I have opportunities to carried out my creation through various supports provided by the school. But in this process, I didn’t realize what was the connection between these themes and my project before I attended the lecture. Through lectures on these topics, I have reflected on my previous project.

I chose contemporary portrait photography as my better lives project. For me, photography is more about recording moments in real life. It is a way to share your feeling, your idea, your emotion to the world. Diversity is the theme that is most closely connected to this unit for me. During one of the outside shooting, I captured in my lens people from different races and different faiths gathered here in a bazaar, they sold the things are also very different. Under the lens, everyone is a beautiful picture of peaceful coexistence, but in real life, there are still many incidents of discrimination. Cultural differences are a very important reason. In the future, I think that I should first understand more about the different cultural and historical backgrounds of different places, and then to create my project on this knowledge, instead of evaluating these people and things based on my own opinions. Diversity means that we should be more tolerant of different cultural groups, but it does not mean that we must all be tolerant, in addition to respect others, I think we should have our own critical thinking.

Nowadays, the world is affected by the epidemic, and sustainability and social responsibility have become particularly important. People’s daily life and production have been greatly affected. During this epidemic, many fashion brands and influencers have donated a lot of money and materials. Some brands have also turned factories into places to produce medical supplies. Without a doubt, as a student, my ability may not enough to support me to do these things, but we could start out small. For example, when we think about how to display our works, we could consider how does it affect our society? What it will bring to us? We cannot undermine the environment because we want to satisfy our own desires. I suggest we should think about the consequence before we do something.

In conclusion, the three themes of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility are all related to each other. Throughout the entire fashion industry, no matter what position they are in, these three themes are closely related to us. This not only affects the industry, but even the entire human civilization and ecological environment. I am very grateful that the lectures on these topics have given me a new understanding. In the future, I will think more carefully about the impact of my work on others.

In the first two weeks of better lives lectures and briefing, I was watching the lecture online and learn a lot of knowledge from those lectures. After listening to these lectures, I gained a better understanding of the industry and made me realize the connection between the fashion industry and the whole society. There was a lecture that impressed me which was power. Some of the issues mentioned by Julia Crew in the lecture caused me to think about the fashion industry and social issues.
The lecture on power talked about the relationship and influence of power in the fashion industry. In my opinion, power and responsibility are two inseparable things. How to balance the relationship between the two is also mentioned in this lecture. When talking about the relationship between fashion and power, she was mentioned that clothing can be used as a symbol of power. In ancient times, clothes were used to express power. For example, the royal powers are well-known for their expensive clothes and jewellery, which symbolize wealth and power. Military power is a symbol of masculinity and authority. There is also the connection between fashion, power in business, politics, media, music and other aspects. Julia Crew talked about the role of media in fashion and the benefits it brought in her lecture. She cited the example of Instagram. Instagram has a large number of users using this software in just a few years. With the continuous upgrading and improvement of software, more and more functions are available for users, which also brings new business opportunities for businesses. Instagram changed the fashion industry. Millennials are the main users of Instagram. Many fashion brands advertise on Instagram. They target millennials to improve the brand ’s product design and gain huge profits.
The power of the media has brought huge benefits to the fashion industry. In China, the rise of media platforms and live video streaming has brought huge profits to the Chinese fashion industry, which has spawned many video anchors and influencers. The fashionable products on sale were quickly robbed. I think this is a benefit brought by the power of the media. Of course, there are also bad sides, such as deceiving consumers by selling fake goods and poor product quality.
I think that both consumers and companies should follow the principle of good faith when using the power of the media, and they should also think of social responsibility while obtaining huge benefits. Positive messages should be disseminated to society, not to deceive consumers in order to gain more benefits.