I was asked to create a body of photographic work using the photographic genres of portraiture, environment, or still life. The photographs for this commission have to be photographed in the local Medway area.
The coarse students have a choice on how they wish to portray this project : a set of portraits of local people working with waste refusal or waste management could be created, a photographic piece dealing with discarded objects of the local area could be produced, fashion photographs using clothing from recycled materials or landscape images of landfills could be considered as another option. The options are manifold and invites me to be innovative.
The commission unit aims to explore an understanding of the social, political and cultural narratives. Towards the end of the project, the resulting images have to be presented in a published form, and must consider carefully the context.
When given the brief the coarse viewed two presentations, which looked at a variety of different ways to approach the subject of Waste.
WASTE!
The images shown below are research that I have begun for my commission unit.
I looked at the book titled 'From Junk to Art'. As it explores how artists, sculptors, filmmakers and even literacy have taken the theme of junk and turned it into pieces of art. It questions why artists use waste material? And how waste material will inevitably remain as objects fit for the bin.
When I first got this topic I was confused about what direction to take this new topic.
However, I began taking notes of ideas and how I could perhaps develop them into new areas of work ……. I also research into various definitions of waste, as I thought this would help me for inspiration :
"....to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit"
".....to destroy or consume gradually; wear away"
".......to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble"
"......to destroy, devastate, or ruin"
I then did a mind map of all of the ideas that came to mind when I thought of 'waste'. When I had finished I had many avenues that I wanted to look down.
To begin my topic I wrote several notes in my sketch book analysing and thinking of possible ideas that I could explore. I researched into cinema, dance, sculpture viewpoint.
The book I looked at, was a good starting point to further consider my ideas for the theme of 'waste'. It made me consider not going for the traditional route of capturing the typical idea if waste such as piles of rubbish tips, people working the rubbish, etc….. I want to 'think outside of the box' and come up with a piece that's creative and takes the theme to the next level and beyond.
A quote I found interesting and made me think what I could explore was :
From my diagram, I was really interested into the idea of eco-fashion and how this has a massive effect of today's society.
I was thinking about creating an 'eco- fashion' project, producing a serious of outfits made out of recyclable material; producing a editorial spread with a political undertone. I also thought at looking at clothes that no longer are being worn; the increase in the number of clothes being given to charity shops.
Another idea of mine was to document the homeless/people who either keep rubbish as praised items in their homes, or document the people who work with waste such as bin men.
Found this really cool article in the Royal Photographic Society Journal (February 2012) about a photographer Brendan Murphy about homeless people and how they survive on the streets with no one/anything to protect them. “Our waste we discard on the streets somehow become their protection, their shelter form the hardship on the streets.”
- This again is a really solid idea, but thought unless I portray their pain, sorrow effectively, their hardship at working with our waste, the photos might not become effective enough ……
I also thought about exploring the side of anorexic/drugs/drink- and how people are wasting their lives/health away. Perhaps thinking about creating a portrait of this.
Ideas/commission fashion
1) Your waste is my treasure.People give away old clothes to charity shops, or sell them on EBay. Why don't they want it any more? Is it "uncool" this season? Fashion trends move quicker than Usain Bolt these days and we've lost our relationship with clothing, consuming disposable clothing to get rid of in a short space of time. Recently the world of "Vintage" has blown up and you can barely travel around cities, without capturing vintage stores selling your grandmothers skirts for as much as £100. Fashion always goes back on itself after a period of time, and trends come back. So in some ways, what was uncool and off trend, is integrating with the new, a kind of antithesis to seasonal designer trends. An idea I had in mind was to produce a fashion series, including items of clothing from charity shops in the local area.
2) dress-up
2) dress-up
For another idea, I was thinking about instead of binning clothes, I wanted to explore further how families hand down items to children. Children impersonate their parents and other adults, and sometimes celebrities. They usually utilise old items such as dresses and makeup that have become useless to their owners.
3) Wasted beauty.The notion of beauty is a controversial aspect. It has changed dramatically over time and in our era, women in particular are being constantly bombarded with what beauty is? and forced to compare themselves to perfect models and force-fed methods of attempting to replicate them with makeup and other alterations. I was thinking about creating a series about natural beauty, stripped back and persuading the viewer to acknowledge the beauty which they could preferably walk past in the street without a second look.
3) Wasted beauty.The notion of beauty is a controversial aspect. It has changed dramatically over time and in our era, women in particular are being constantly bombarded with what beauty is? and forced to compare themselves to perfect models and force-fed methods of attempting to replicate them with makeup and other alterations. I was thinking about creating a series about natural beauty, stripped back and persuading the viewer to acknowledge the beauty which they could preferably walk past in the street without a second look.
For inspiration I looked at the photographer Irina Werning, and how her photographs explore the theme of waste. Her series depict the aesthetics of the photograph and how its becoming recycled and recreated? Irina Werning produced a series titled "Back to the Future" and recreated childhood photographs of other people, placing them in exactly the same environment and position. This led me to develop further exploring a similar route….
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