I am now near my deadline as we move closer to our final week, and I have continued to research relevant information and sources to my final outcome. I’ve decided that I want to stick with exploring animal cruelty, as I have many ideas and I feel so strongly about the topic. I have researched different campaigns, photographers and articles that are all about animal cruelty in the fashion industry to develop my knowledge and creativity. I felt most inspired by the Fashion Campaigns, as PETA are very successful in styling and shooting models for the campaigns, as well as editing their photos to grab viewers attention and successfully portray their message in the best way possible. They use clever slogans and develop interesting ideas that hook the audience in. I also researched photographers that are extremely against animal cruelty and capture raw photos showing the sadness and torture they are put through, showing the audience for how it is. By doing this it creates more emotion towards the matter and allows people to feel a connection with it, meaning that it will sink into people’s minds , and allows people to really think about how the industry is damaging our animals and wildlife.
Moving on from my research, it was time for me to develop my ideas and create a plan using my research and inspiration. I want to create a photoshoot that uses a human to portray the feelings and pain of the animals that are tortured for the fashion industry. This will be done my using makeup for special affects like bruising, messy hair and distressed clothing. I also want to create a dark and plain background to show the loneliness and vulnerability, similar to Britta Jaschinski, a photographer I researched who was also inspired by animal cruelty and using her talent and skills to get the message across of how hurtful and damaging what we are contributing to is. I have thought about the many ideas, and ways I can portray my message of “If you wouldn’t do this to a human, why would you allow an animal?”. And I feel like this is the most successful one, visually showing the audience the vulnerability, hurt and sadness of a human, and connecting it to the same feelings for an animal.
Month: December 2024
Week 5 Module 2 – Surrealism Shoot and Research
For our week 5 workshop, we had to expand our knowledge in Surrealism and plan and shoot a photoshoot showing our knowledge and ideas. I really enjoyed researching about surrealism. I found the concept really interesting but also bizarre, which encouraged me to dive deeper into artists and what made something surreal. I noticed many aspects that are included in art work and photo shoots, like the pattern of melting clocks that were repeatedly noticed during my research. Surrealism is just so unique, and so creative. I researched a photographer called Ronen Goldman, who used editing to create the surrealism effect. I was amazed by his work and found it very clever how he interpreted ideas of commonly used phrases like “when life gives you lemons” or “tree-huggers”.
Moving on to my photoshoot, although I really enjoyed researching and was inspired by the whole concept. I really struggled to get my ideas out and turn them into reality. Although my final outcomes were “cool” photographs, they didn’t portray surrealism very clearly. It was more my editing that may show the concept a little bit more, as I used vibrancy and black point to create an unrealistic colour to life. I styled my model in bright and colourful clothing, keeping a bit of a random theme to show a surreal aspect. I also had painted on unusual patterns on to my models skin to also create that surreal vibe. However they still didn’t meet my expectations and I was dissatisfied with the outcomes. Although I’m unhappy with my photos, it has pushed me more to work with surrealism again. I am so interested in surrealism and I know that I can produce much better outcomes, as I have such good ideas inside my mind. I just feel like I should’ve added something a bit more different and “out there”.
Week 4 Module 2 – Research and Development
As we progressed into Week 4, using my research and workshops I had to start thinking about where I wanted to go in terms of my Final Shoot for this project. Our Brief was to produce photos that explore 21st Century sustainable fashion challenges and new possibilities. Throughout my research of sustainability, i felt a deeper sense of emotion when researching and learning about animal cruelty in the fashion industry. I wanted to educate myself as well as explore my creativity in a different kind of way, a more emotional and sensitive subject. I had never explored with anything like this before, and I wanted to understand how it can be portrayed successfully and where my creativity would lead me to in a new and fresh topic. However, so far I still want to keep my mind open to new ideas, as I understand that my creativity can spring from anywhere.
In my research I have also studied different Stylist and Photographers in my sketchbook that I felt inspired or interested by. There was a sustainable stylist named Kerry Wilde, who helps her clients find themselves and their fashion sense, learning what colours suit them, and what clothing suits their body shape and “vibe” – more of an emotional kind of styling. Her idea is to decrease overconsumption, as it’s a known fact that majority of consumers buy garments due to trends and not thinking about the garment on themselves, they end up not liking it and throwing it away or returning, which also contributes to pollution and global warming.
I have also continued researching more on sustainability, overconsumption and have tried to cover as many aspects of it as I can, contributing to my knowledge and creativity in this Module.
My aim is to develop my research, and research relevant things during my development process, and enough of it. I’ve always struggled on having enough development to show during this process and staying on track. This is something I aim to get better at, and eventually becomes natural to me.
Week 3 Module 2 – Vogue Photoshoot (Slow Fashion)
Entering the 3rd week of our module, one of our workshops was to learn and understand slow fashion, using vogue as our source of inspiration when styling and presenting. We needed to promote slow fashion using the materials around us in the studio, and create a typical vogue look as if we were shooting for a page encouraging sustainability in the fashion industry.
Me and my model aimed to create a vintage look, encouraging viewers that vintage wear can still be fashionable and trendy. Moving forward as a current generation, vintage wear has fortunately become even more fashionable and appreciated by everyone, especially in young adults. We wanted to express this by using old trends that have made a come back, styling the model in flared jeans and a vintage blazer. We also used props like an old brief case and an old but beautiful lampshade, incorporating it in to the outfit as some sort of head piece to portray the “quirky” essence that vogue sometimes likes to play around with throughout their magazines.
As for photography, I captured many shots with my model posing in different ways, some being on the floor, on the stool and with or without our props. This was our favourite photograph out of all of them due to how we incorporated the props and successfully showing the quirky and vintage look, however still being able to view the outfit that was well thought about. I tried to keep it as professional as I could using the materials and backdrops around me. We used a plain white backdrop and the camera was placed in the centre at the right level, capturing the full body of the model, the briefcase and leaving room for above to edit in the famous “VOGUE” writing to tie it all in together. I edited the photo in to black and white to also encourage the vintage look, and finally edited in “VOGUE” in clean white writing, using the most similar font I could find.
Overall me and my model was very pleased with our overall shoot, feeling like we had accomplished the mini brief of encouraging and portraying slow fashion in a VOGUE magazine. I loved the highlights of white throughout the photograph, contrasting with the darker colours. Next time I would like to experiment more with posing, and have a wider variety of photos to chose from that are more different from each other.
Week 3 Module 2 – Sustainable Photoshoot
I worked independently to create, style and photograph a character responding to a topic within sustainability and climate change. I planned and developed on to an idea of creating a character that overconsumed due to their obsession with social media and fashion trends. They always want to impress others with their flashy and trendy fashion choices. However, fashion trends change constantly, leading to my character over consuming, and just throwing away when it’s not longer a trend, also contributing to waste.
Therefore i styled my character in trendy items, that were already owned to show sustainability in my shoot, like a Moncler coat, Ugg boots, a Burberry scarf, a Jacquemus bag and a Louis Vuitton bracelet. These are all items that were trending on social media at the time. I also went for an autumn/winter themed outfit, due to the outside surroundings and contrasted darker autumn like colours like beige, brown, white and black. I asked my model to curl her hair due to this hairstyle being trendy and do a full face of makeup using social media makeup trends. These trends are usually influenced by Fashion Influencers who also promote trends and also fast fashion / overconsuming. I then proceeded to use an outside location to portray how brands and influencers on social media use an outside background into manipulating their audience and viewers into thinking they’re eco friendly and big nature lovers. For one of the shots my model posed walking through the park, using her phone to portray the obsession of social media and constantly being on their devices. I edited both of my final photos, increasing the black point as well as the saturation – only very slightly. I also used an automatic setting on my camera (Nikon D3500) named dark lighting, that allows me to create a colder and more autumn like setting / vibe.Editing the black point and saturation, as well as using the automatic camera setting allowed me to also enhance the leaves on the ground in one of my final shots.
I enjoyed this task as it allowed me to work with my own ideas and easily observe my own creativity and development. This photoshoot has definitely been one of my most successful ones yet, in terms of looking professional and turning my ideas in to reality in the best way I could’ve. My personal development using my camera was shown clearly, especially when comparing them to my last photographs. I enjoyed being independent and having the chance to understand myself while I perform creative tasks, like my creativity, development, how I deal with problem solving and trial and error etc.
Week 3 Module 2 – Inventing and Styling Characters
One of our workshops during this week was to portray a character from a made up tribe based on 21st century youth culture responding to climate change. We was then put in to random groups, which for me is beneficial when developing on to skills like team work, creativity, communication skills and critical thinking. Working in groups allows me to explore other peoples creativity and ideas and for me to learn on working collaboratively efficiently as well as how other people portray ideas. In the Fashion Industry, you normally work with others very closely and collaborate with one another. So it’s a very important skill, and for me has developed well since being in University.
As a group we worked together to brainstorm ideas for our character and their tribe. We all individually was drawn to the idea of using denim. As denim material is very damaging to make and struggles to be sustainable, this is because the process wastes a lot of water. Although, denim is very durable, known to have a long life expectancy. As well as Denim never goes out of trend, decreasing over consumption and waste, slowing down the encouragement and urge of contributing to the damage the industry causes. We then linked the idea of Denim and the Colour Blue, and for our aim to respond to climate change, we automatically linked the ideas of water, blue and denim to the ocean. We discussed further ideas from the ocean and originally wanted to use a green screen behind the model of water, and use draping of fabrics to portray the movement of the ocean. However due to time and limited equipment, our idea wasn’t able to become reality. We continued to think of our backstory and tribe. We wanted our tribe to portray a strict rule of only using denim, showing the durability of the material and therefore decreasing over consumption, as this is the only material they wear. They think about the earth and do not want to encourage landfills and other damaging aspects. And if they only wear denim, they can’t be encouraged to over consume in fast paced trends and cheap bad quality items.
We styled our model using the technique of layering. Our photo process behind this was due to the character and their tribe spending a lot of their time outside and in colder wetter conditions. Due to our strict rule of only denim, we layered the model in a pair of baggy jeans, a skirt, another pair of denims styled into a top and then finally a denim jacket. This was a successful choice, and I liked how all the different shades of blue worked together, also portraying different colours of the ocean.
First we decided to use an original thought of draping blue fabric in the background to portray water and the movement. We used our surrounding area to pin the blue fabric to other fabrics like curtains etc. We took a few shots however as a group we decided our idea turned out to be not as successful as we hoped! We then searched for other suitable locations, but we couldn’t agree on something that would portray our ideas and thoughts, and show the viewers the character and their tribe. We was finally drawn to the outside, due to our character and their tribe being an outdoor group. Our model posed sat on a wall near a tree, showing the audience their close relationship to nature.
Unfortunately as a group we wasn’t overall impressed with our final shots, as we wanted to use our original idea of using a green screen and creating lighting and successful draping effects to portray our model in the ocean. However, the workshop was still beneficial when developing my skills of working in a group and learning to collaborate efficiently.
Week 2 Module 2 – Styling techniques
During week 2 of Module 2, I looked into styling techniques that are commonly used by stylists and are also important skills to understand and be able to perform successfully. I really enjoyed this workshop, I worked in a group including the model and we only had materials and garments around us in the studio. This allowed us to use our creativity and collaborate together with ideas. There was a lot of trial and error while performing these techniques due to ideas not being successful in reality, critical thinking due to a lack of materials around us etc.
However, eventually we managed to become successful in portraying each technique on the model. My favourite technique was definitely the layering, which is above this blog, because of the different textures and colours of denim. It was a really effective example and was fun to throw together and see what we could create! I have now become very familiar with these techniques and I would definitely like to play with draping again in a different aspect. I think It’s such a beautiful styling technique that creates movement , and I feel like I would be very good at this particular skill, especially if I have the right equipment and materials! Draping is a technique that could create a lot of emotion and movement in specific shoots, especially elements like water and fire. Overall I definitely feel that this workshop was beneficial for me, as it allowed me to develop my creativity for future styling shoots, like draping, and also helped me understand why It’s a basic and important skill to understand for a Fashion Stylist.
Week 2 Module 2 – Learning the basics of a Camera
During week 2, I developed my skills in Photography by experimenting with the shutter speed, ISO and the aperture. I knew the rough basics due to owning a Nikon D3500, however I wasn’t familiar with the manual settings and what they do. We experimented with using different settings together at their lowest and highest to understand what they do to image quality. Either increasing or decreasing grain, lighting and movement. I included two photos in this post from the experiment, these being the most interesting to me. The first photo was captured on the lowest setting for the ISO (200) to decrease light and grain and the aperture was placed on F4.5 to allow more light in, then the shutter speed was placed on 1/50 to keep a natural light. I thought this was the perfect setting to allow that depth in while also keeping a natural and bright light. These settings would be successful when taking portraits of people and capturing depth and detail due to a clear image. The second photo captured movement and energy. Using the lowest shutting speed (1/4) to capture the most movement while also allowing the most light in, and then increasing the aperture to cut down the light (F32) and decreasing the light again with the ISO (200). These settings would work really well when capturing movement and action in an image. I enjoyed experimenting with the camera, as I have mentioned before photography is a skill I really enjoy and aim to improve the most on throughout my time at Brighton University. I have understood that it becomes much more familiar the more you practise with these settings, and although I’ve already practised, I still feel like I need a lot more to feel confident in what I’m doing. However, so far I have appreciated being able to develop my skills and allow myself to become more confident in the future. I believe that over the next coming weeks of this module, I will gain experience and become more comfortable.
