John Bloom

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Response to another student’s post – John Bloom

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Reflection on Lectures

I really loved reading your blog post – it was very informative and focused on extremely key points in Rogaten’s lecture on well-being. Your understanding of fashion and it’s interconnectedness with sustainability and well-being is evident, and you provide the reader with how this factor influences with our identity – as simple as picking out an outfit every morning. Additionally, you successfully make note of the awareness of not just yourself as a consumer, but the entire supply chain as a whole. This touches on the theme of social responsibility – feeling empathy for the others in the supply chain. This awareness can bring about great change if they continue to influence your practice. You mention working towards eliminating sweatshops, and only consuming from ethical and sustainable brands which is a wonderful moral to have.

Lastly, I think it would be important if you mentioned the importance of diversity, another one of the better lives themes. This might be connected with the well-being of fashion – its importance stretches to a multitude of audiences. Being able to see “yourself’ through media images is crucial in reaching a wider audience. It benefits the well being of the consumer, because they can see that they are being widely represented in an editorial or ad campaign. This might be important for a sustainable and ethical brand in reaching a wider audience. 

Otherwise, your post is successful in mentioning the other two Better Lives themes. Well done!

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Project Outcomes and Personal Development – John Bloom

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At the very beginning of this portrait photography class, I felt eager to diversify my practice. I was keen on learning technical skills, theory, conventions, and how this class might influence how I navigate this messy knot of an industry. I can certainly say at the end of this project, I have shifted the way I see how powerful a portrait can be and the ways in which I can manipulate the camera in order to evoke a meaningful message. Portrait photography has the ability to highlight subtle nuances we may not see at first glance. 

My journey began with reflecting on my own feelings and emotions during the pandemic. Using this time for introspection was something I felt was important in an age like this, and I would frequently have ongoing conversations and debates with my friends regarding mental health and their own experiences during this time. Many are spread out throughout the world, others are just ten minutes away. But with just a quick click of a button, regardless of how far they are, I am able to see their face in the palm of my hand. I can hear their voice, see their facial expressions, and see if I’ve said something that they disagree with from their body language. To be connected in this digital age is something we take for granted, no longer the need for sending lengthy letters or complicated telegrams. For a majority of my conversations with my friends, we all agreed on this – we feel completely overwhelmed by the number of media news outlets we have access too, to a point where it feels drowning. It is a complete data overload, considering how fast case numbers are updated and written about in the press. We all feel lost, and pulled in thousands of different directions. What do we believe, and where do we begin to navigate this daunting path of forming our own opinion? Having these conversations and this continuous reflection assisted me in developing my project. I wanted to express these emotions I was feeling, and really evoke this in a highly considered portrait. When bringing awareness to the medium of my photograph, I wanted to juxtapose the digital age we live in – by presenting my outcome in an analogue style. This doesn’t mean shooting in analogue, it was about making it feel dated and non digital.

In my own personal development, I really valued the lecture which explored portrait photography as a performance, and using the space to bring upon sensory feelings or transport the viewer into a different place and time. As explained in Daniel Treacy’s lecture, “…practitioners transform and blur our understanding of what is reality and fantasy, by incorporating styling, props and set design in quite simplistic ways.

The camera’s position is very important with regards to perspective – the camera becomes a participant in the performative act” (Treacy, 2020). Treacy’s lecture inspired me to challenge myself to capture a moment that considered these factors. I came to understand the real power I have as a photographer behind the lens, and my ability to develop these visualizations.

Fig. 1. Portrait Photography Outcome Better Lives (2020)

References: Treacy, D 2020, Performance in Photography, lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 20 April 2020.

Figure 1. Bloom, J. (2020) Portrait Photography Outcome Better Lives [Photograph]

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  1. Andrea Jaqueline Sacal Romano: I deeply enjoyed the way that you described the current state of crisis in the world, your own personal experience…

  2. William Clarke: Blog Post 4 – Peer Review Will Clarke In Johnny’s third blog post ‘Project Outcomes and Personal Development’, his portrait…

  3. Jude Sallows: I really enjoyed looking through my fellow SMC Better Lives students blogs for insights that I had previously not thought…

Using the Better Lives Themes to Better My Practice – Blog Post 2 – John Bloom

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After a wonderful series of informative lectures given by knowledgeable industry practitioners, I am greatly impacted by their words and the Better lives themes. These three pillars in which the London College of Fashion revolves around – social responsibility, diversity, and sustainability – all hold equal importance to the university and should greatly influence students continuing their degree. No matter what it is that I do now, I will always consider these themes with a high level of importance, understanding that these factors are what will reshape the industry.

The Better Lives themes of social responsibility and diversity will play large roles in the way I work going forward. These will mostly affect my research process and realization. I understand that I have an artistic voice, and with this voice it should be used responsibly. During my studies, I will always consider an a multitude audiences when choosing a research topic and producing an outcome.

We are currently in a state of climate emergency. We have entered the Age of the Anthropocene – a new geologic epoch dominated by humanity, which has been brought upon by our altering of Earth’s natural cycles due to the last 250 years of rapid industrialization. It is quite unnerving to sit with this heavy information and continue my studies where I will join an industry that has been a major contributor in entering this new epoch. However, I believe that being aware of these ramifications is where change can begin. In fact, it has already begun. For the past year, I have been challenging myself to create the least amount of waste as possible. After Kate Fletcher’s remarkable lecture on nature, my desire to produce less waste grew stronger. It has empowered me to focus both my long and short term goals on sustainability, one day hoping to land a job connected with this matter. As I will continue to consider sustainable viewpoints for any project I take on in the future, it remains a challenge to think outside the box and express creativity. It is no longer a time where editorial shoots can be shot in luxury locations or acquire massive budgets for set design and curation. It truly is wonderful that creatives can express themselves in this way, but it would be even more interesting to see them use activism to raise awareness. It is time for creatives to focus the spotlight on sustainability and express themselves in ways larger than ever before. No longer do we have the luxury of creating ego stories. We now have no other choice but to see the bigger image and remove ourselves from the center of the universe. This responsibility also rests on the shoulders of incoming creatives. Fashion and art enables us to shape our ethical landscape. It can create narratives, either personal or share, and the imagery can have a powerful affect on the audience if done right.

Furthermore, one thing I would like to explore is the concept of the block chain. Nick Almond discusses this idea, explaining how it can provide transparency. This could perhaps be useful for authenticity checking in order to better understand where our clothes are coming from and what exactly it is made from. By seeing how are our clothes are made, it provides a tangible experience that the consumer feels apart of. The consumer is made aware that their garment was produced ethically. Almond refers to this as a “trust architecture”.

References

Almond, N 2020, Emerging Technologies in Fashion, lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 14 February 2020.

Fletcher, K 2020, Nature, lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 13 February 2020.

Welcome to the Anthropocene (2012) Welcome to the Anthropocene. 2012. Available at: http://www.anthropocene.info/short-films.php (Accessed: 04 April 2020).

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Lecture Reflection on Wellbeing – John Bloom

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After two weeks of very informative and inspiring lectures from fashion practitioners from around the world, I feel I have absorbed a multitude of concepts that are part of the ethos of the London College of Fashion. However, one lecture that I keep coming back to and thinking about was given by Dr. Jekaterina Rogaten. This lecture covered the concept of well-being. As we currently live in a highly materialistic culture, it is very important to consider well being, as this can have links to depression and anxiety. Rogaten referenced to Positive Psychology, which is the use of “psychological theory, research and intervention techniques which are used to understand the positive, creative and emotionally fulfilling elements of human behavior”. (Monetta, G.B. (2013). She looked at what makes us happy, and the ratio between genetics of being happy and optimistic. It is important to remember that we are the decision makers with choices and preferences, and we are the only ones that can make ourselves happy. Her points brought me to understand the materiality of fashion – I completely agree with this idea. It is ultimately our choice to see things positively – the hedonic quality of our current experience depends on our presence and acceptance of the now. If we are unhappy with the present moment, we are either anxious (worried about the future) or depressed (sad about the past). 

Rogaten also mentioned the effects of the paradox of choice. By maximizing choice, our freedom and decision making are also maximized. People fifty years ago had to make substantially less decisions than we do today. In an age of excess consumption, all these things to make choices on later influences us to have unrealistic expectations, as our high expectations are much harder to satisfy. Thereby, our responsibility for making decisions is negatively affected. With too much choice, it is hard to make decisions as we have to compare and contrast many things, making it a heavy cognitive load. I find this very interesting, as I always thought of having multiple options as a good thing. In our fashion system today, we have created an extremely unsustainable system, pumping out loads of garments. We have given consumers the opportunity to choose between the same shirt in eight different colors, widening our pool of choice. While this might seem like a good thing, this is actually quite negative to our mental health as well as the planet. The industry needs to reshape the system and as consumers, we need to do our part in understanding and being aware of how having a multitude of options is worse for us than we think. The system can create better lives by materializing a minimalist lifestyle.

My favorite part of the lecture was Rogaten’s evaluation on what a happy life consists of was very eye opening. From a psychological perspective, a happy life is an engaging life. Not so much experiencing high levels of positive emotions, but there is meaning and good things happening when you take a step back to reflect. Perhaps this idea relates somewhat to social responsibility, how the notion of taking time to reflect and evaluate how you are feeling and being aware of your emotions. By putting things into perspective and becoming aware of how you feel rather than judging how you feel, the world could slowly become a better place.


References 

Rogaten, J 2020, Wellbeing, lecture notes, Better Lives Unit FU001708, London College of Fashion, delivered 17 February 2020.

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