Franziska Reith

The Better Lives unit has helped me develop my skills and shape my thinking before creating new projects. I always wanted to develop my photography skills and this was a great opportunity to do so. During the Contemporary Portrait Photography course, we started to look at technical skills and moved on towards analysing the work of other photographers and looking at their practices. 

Using photography to spread a message is widely used in the fashion industry and both are essential to each other. Even though I thought that the isolation would make it harder to create something and work on the project, it changed the way I see things and helped me to be more creative inside the four walls of my home. 

For the final project, the task was to take three types of portraits within our homes. The first, a self-portrait which was probably the easiest and most enjoyable as it didn’t require another person. I always loved the self-portraits of Cindy Sherman. The idea of depicting oneself in different contexts and growing into different characters always fascinated me. Even though her practices really inspired me for several years, seeing a lot of her work during the recent exhibition in London, I decided not to show faces in this project. Seeing other body parts and allowing the viewer to imagine the rest of it, is in my opinion, sometimes more interesting. Similar to old paintings, the objects lying around allow the viewer to analyse the people in them, learning more about their backgrounds, lives and status in society. The second task was a portrait of someone else, again, I decided not to take a picture of a person but, instead, focus on objects lying around the house that show a lot about a person. Either a mug, a working from home station or laundry lying around. The idea of not using the conventional portrait photography and having a person in front of the lense allowed me to find another way to show one’s personality through a still image. The last task was to take a portrait of someone not there. This was by far the most challenging of the three and I decided, in the end to create something using old film negatives that were hidden in old boxes in the house.

Throughout the Contemporary Portrait Photography course, I’ve learnt to look at things differently and keep in mind the three themes of the Better Lives unit. Being isolated at home was, at first, a challenge but it allowed me to see things I wouldn’t have thought about otherwise and shoot in a different way. I have also learnt by analysing images with the themes in mind, that photography is very powerful and can create a very different reality depending on who shoots and who is shot. Images can have a positive as well as a negative meaning but they are an essential part of the fashion industry. 

The fashion industry can seem superficial, vain and frivolous but if done with the right intentions, it can be very positive and make a change for good. During the Better Lives unit, we focussed on three key themes; diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. I hardly thought about them before when buying new clothes or consuming fashion in another way but it really opened my eyes and showed me how much there still needs to be done. From brands greenwashing consumers, a lack of diversity on catwalks and the media and last but not least, the hard working conditions, the negative aspects quickly stood out. 

It has become obvious throughout the unit, that to make it a more positive industry, everyone has to keep these themes in the back of their head before putting out new work. That it is essential — maybe now, in these times of uncertainty, more than ever — to work towards a more mindful approach when it comes to fashion. The production cycle has kept accelerating more and more over the last decade and this could be an opportunity to embrace the change in the world and break the ever-accelerating cycle. 

At the beginning of the Contemporary Portrait Photography project, I didn’t really see where to apply these themes but after a few lectures and analysing the work of various photographers, I understood that every image will hugely depend on the person behind the lens. The photographer’s story, background and vision on the world will send a message to the person looking at the final image. What I like about photography is, like with a painting, that everyone can interpret it in their own way. Photography, especially portraits, is very powerful and can quickly intensify a message or alter a reality to create a false one. 

Photography is a key part to fashion and the last few months of isolation revealed some great new ways to be creative. Zara, the Spanish high-street label has sent their newest pieces to the models to shoot them at home instead of flying them to beautiful locations or a studio. This not only made the self-portraits look more authentic in the home environment, styling the new collection in their own way but also reduced the expenses and the impact on the environment. Again, it made me think that despite these hard times, we can all learn things from it and by keeping the themes in mind, make the fashion industry more positive. 

I’ve learnt a lot of things during the Better Lives unit that I want to apply in the future when creating new work. That even though we’re currently isolated, there are still a lot of ways to apply them and be creative to make a change for good when everything is over.

After listening to several lectures touching on the themes of sustainability, social responsibility and diversity, one that really stuck with me was the one about well-being in the fashion industry. Jekaterina Rogaten talked about the impact of fashion on not only our own well-being as consumers but also on the well-being of the employees.

People‘s interest in feeling well has increased drastically over the last few years, indeed, wellness has become a big trend and is now worth more than the pharmaceutical industry.

Practising mindfulness, eating healthy and using expensive skin care can all contribute to a state of well-being but so can clothes. The way we dress has – if not the biggest – impact in how we feel, think and behave. Buying new things to wear is now a way to enhance our well-being and thus, enhance our mood but the Hedonic Treadmill Theory shows that more isn‘t always the best way to find happiness and fulfillment in our lives. The more we buy, the more we think that new clothes are needed to feel happy, building up unrealistic expectations harder to satisfy.

As mentioned by William James, fashion is an extension of our selves, therefore fashion can either enhance our mood or lead to ill-being. Feeling good in our clothes is an expression of our inner selves. Clothes can reveal the way we feel about ourselves by either dressing to accentuate a body part we like or to camouflage insecurities. The Maslow hierarchy of needs also exists for fashion and shows that first of all, clothes have to satisfy physiological needs before meeting the higher needs such as esteem needs and self-actualization, enhancing self-esteem and our sense of belonging and self-expression through clothes.

Also mentioned by Jekaterina Rogaten in the lecture, buying sustainable clothes makes the consumer feel even happier, leading to a higher level of well-being. It got me thinking that if having more clothes makes individuals feel even better about themselves that maybe having less clothes that are made in a more sustainable way would bring real happiness. Thinking about the entire supply chain is now essential and the well-being of the people making the clothes is as important as the consumer‘s well-being. It has become crucial to give everyone in the industry a sense of feeling supported to change the industry to a more sustainable one. 

I have learnt through these lectures, that wellbeing influences a wide range of markets and in particular fashion. In order to make fashion more positive and help people attain an even higher state of well-being, the sustainability aspect can no longer be ignored. Not only for the consumer wearing the pieces but also for the whole production cycle. Offering better working conditions, reducing waste and using more eco-friendly materials will help shaping better lives in the fashion industry.