Aslican Mete

The project I picked and was looking forward to take was Contemporary Portrait Photography. I remained impressed and felt like it was relating well to the whole concept behind Better Lives throughout the whole part of this unit. Unfortunately, nobody was prepared for a pandemic getting in the way and since Photography requires equipment, hands-on practices and more real-life interaction, it was more of a challenge to finish this project with a whole understanding of Contemporary Portrait Photography in relation to the themes of this unit especially on the practical part.
Nevertheless, both Daniel Treacy and Lillian Wilkie have tried their best at delivering the right content.

In the very first lecture Daniel introduced us to this project by mentioning notable people in the world of Photography. This part felt extremely crucial. It set the right tone. Here already the themes were apparent. With Hippolyte Bayard’s self-portrait in which he stages his own death due to lack of recognition for his work, photos of guest workers in central Europe taken by August Sander, images inspired by historic moments for Africa captured by Samuel Fosso, to pictures of “invisible” workers photographed by Irving Penn; the Better Lives themes seemed very detectable already. When we speak of Fashion, we think of catwalks, big brands, aesthetic models and desirable clothes. We forget to highlight the fact that Fashion is more than that. People seem to be forefront in this project. The photography projects we were shown, fit perfectly. Not only were the mentioned artists people of different genders, ethnicities, backgrounds etc., so were their subjects and visions. I felt especially stricken by Nikki S. Lee’s “Projects” in which she blends in with the environments chosen to photograph.

On another day, we were given the task to roam around Shepherd’s Bush Market to take pictures. I was impressed by my peer’s work, some of them had managed to bring people usually invisible to us to the foreground. It made me think of empathy within the topic of social responsibility and perspectives. Some of my classmates had focused on featuring ways of dress at the market. It reminded me of “Questioning Identity” in Lucy Orta’s “The Sustainable Fashion Handbook” in which she speaks of ways of expressing our “visions of the world”. These pictures gave us flashbacks to the lectures on sustainability.

During quarantine, we were asked to take portraits at home. Here, too, I was more interested in how others were approaching this assignment. I think the reason lies in my interest to adapt different perspectives to my work in the future. Sometimes we get so stuck in our own visions that we forget that others exist too and considering this could solve issues, bring innovation and make it easier to understand one and other to be inclusive in representation, aware of our powers in society and conscious of our impact on Ecology.

The Better Lives lectures cover a broad range of topics that I found quite interesting to look into. Therefore, I took my time to read every given source and watch every single lecture. The concept behind this unit fascinates me because it resonates in me. As someone with goals within the fashion industry with plans on making it as socially, economically and ecologically sustainable as much as I’m able to, I have tried taking in as much information as possible.

One thing I’m sure of after all the weeks of intensive studying of the topics and themes, is that I now feel some kind of relief about the future. Usually when we speak of the future, especially in the fashion industry, we speak of it with at least a pinch of pessimism. Which honestly is completely understandable, given the fact that the state of the earth is deteriorating as people in power like Donald Trump are still in denial of what has been taking place for way too long now. But I believe that this is where we should start changing our attitude. We rely too much on power figures and hope to be guided well, when each of us actually already has the chance to impact the narrative. We aren’t just passive figures in a game lead by the “bigger people”. This unit highlights this attitude as well, encouraging us to see the potential. We are the future. We decide the next years. Therefore, the themes of the Better Lives unit definitely will be of use for us fashion students in the upcoming years.

I’ve already debated why I believe diversity matters, mentioning my own experiences and the lack of representation or the amount of misrepresentation that I consider “low-key racism” in a simplified manner of language.

Generally speaking, though, the lectures have pointed out the core issues within the industry well enough. What I will do with all this new information isn’t clear yet but I can feel my intentions navigating towards a future motivated by human touch. I believe all topics within this unit matter and ideally in my future plans I will be able to bring positive change by considering all aspects.

Despite my general interest, I have focused most on the topic of diversity and therefore took big interest in the Representation lecture held by Teleica Kirkland, a fashion historian and the founder of the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora (CIAD).

Before diving into the lecture and the reading materials suggested for the topic of diversity, I have made a little research on Teleica Kirkland and found her ambition and her achievements in understanding the history and the culture of the African Diaspora highly inspiring.

My specific interest in this topic mainly has its roots in the fact that I’m a woman of mixed background, having grown up in different countries with different beliefs, cultures and languages. Early on in life I have noticed that I’m not well represented in mainstream media. This becomes especially apparent to me when I think back and remember trying to shave my Mediterranean/Middle Eastern skin tone off of me. This had happened because of my fair skin Austrian class mates telling me to “rub the dirt off my skin”. How would I know that this wasn’t normal? I was playing with blonde Barbies, seeing fair skin and so called “perfect” women represented in every possible media outlet I was exposed to growing up. When I started to befriend more people of different backgrounds, I started to notice that there were groups of people having it even worse that I was having it. My confidence and belief in myself were nonexistent and I was deeply feeling for the struggle of others.

Diversity and representation have become buzzwords today but still remain undervalued or misunderstood. Teleica Kirkland explained this quite well by criticizing Eurocentric or better said Monoculturalist ideologies but she also made it clear that a lack of representation isn’t the only problem of racist media. Misrepresentation, too, results in having people feel less desirable or unaccepted. This can take place by either adding to racist stereotypes or by raising the image of a “model minority” leading to people adapting to these standards to the point of assimilation and identity loss.

Not only can I relate to this since I was forced to give up my ethnic identity to be accepted around my European friends but I also couldn’t stop thinking of bigger examples of misrepresentation. Just recently I have seen a video made by an African American woman begging other African American women to “elevate out of the broke ghetto mentality” into a “classy version of themselves”, while it shouldn’t be relevant at all since “the ghetto” is a culture in itself and people should have the right to be however the like to be.
The lecturer’s advice is to have open conversations to create understanding of one and other.