Portfolio review with Rachel Brown
Today we had the absolute pleasure to be able to show our work to the Director of Photography at both Harper's Bazaar and Town & Country. I did not want to miss this chance and so I put my name down to speak to her as soon as I could - I was both terrified to show someone within the industry that I potentially want to go into my work, but also extremely excited to receive any feedback and criticism to help me develop my project and my practise.
I took a variety of images into the group presentation with me as I wanted to receive feedback on my Final Major Project and also the work I have done as individual practice as these were more relevant to the career that I want to go into - more fashion portraiture and editorial imagery.
For my Final Major Project, she gave me a lot of pointers and advice on how to develop it and progress into work I am happier with:
Using theory to back up my work - for example Jacques Lacan's theory of the mirror stage. This is the theory that infants recognise themselves as a reflection in a mirror or another object which develops apperception from the age of around 6 months. Laura Mulvey is another theorist who came up when speaking to Rachel as the images I showed her were of women - this isn't something that I have specifically chosen to do, they were just people that I had available at the time to do test shoots with. Theory is something that I definitely want to think more about within my work as I want to make sure my images are representing the idea that I want them to or making the viewer feel a specific emotion I am trying to communicate - although at this stage in the project I am mainly creating imagery and am unsure of what the meaning is just yet.
Colour theory - this is something that I questioned within my work when showing Rachel; whether or not the colours that I have used should represent something or if they do whether or not I want them to. I thought the idea of using theory within the use of colour was really interesting as it was not something that I had particularly questioned but after thinking about this it makes sense to use certain colours to show particular feelings within the image of perhaps attributes of the individual - it could be as simple as using a colour which is their favourite to show a tiny portion of their identity.
TV and Film - one thing that, again, I hadn't thought about within my work, is how photography and film relate to one another again and again and are always taking reference from one another and inspiring the other medium in ways. The director Wes Anderson and tv series Twin Peaks were two examples that Rachel gave that she felt my work had a vibe of.
Artificial - when looking at my work, Rachel used the word 'artificial' to question what I was doing and the aim my project had. I thought this was a really interesting angle to look at my project from because I am trying to get as many different viewpoints as I can to then make my work really considered - it also makes me question the way in which people view my work and whether or not what I want to be seen is being communicated by what I am presenting.
I then decided to briefly show her some fashion images that I had shot within the past year, as I want to start doing this a lot more within my own personal time alongside my project at university and she gave me a lot of great feedback on that, too - telling me which type of photography she believes clients are wanting to see and ways of improving the work.
I am so very pleased that I went to this review with Rachel, as it has really calmed me in the sense of meeting people within the industry I am hoping to get into. It was extremely helpful to me within my university work and any work I want to do outside of university, too.
I took a variety of images into the group presentation with me as I wanted to receive feedback on my Final Major Project and also the work I have done as individual practice as these were more relevant to the career that I want to go into - more fashion portraiture and editorial imagery.
For my Final Major Project, she gave me a lot of pointers and advice on how to develop it and progress into work I am happier with:
Using theory to back up my work - for example Jacques Lacan's theory of the mirror stage. This is the theory that infants recognise themselves as a reflection in a mirror or another object which develops apperception from the age of around 6 months. Laura Mulvey is another theorist who came up when speaking to Rachel as the images I showed her were of women - this isn't something that I have specifically chosen to do, they were just people that I had available at the time to do test shoots with. Theory is something that I definitely want to think more about within my work as I want to make sure my images are representing the idea that I want them to or making the viewer feel a specific emotion I am trying to communicate - although at this stage in the project I am mainly creating imagery and am unsure of what the meaning is just yet.
Colour theory - this is something that I questioned within my work when showing Rachel; whether or not the colours that I have used should represent something or if they do whether or not I want them to. I thought the idea of using theory within the use of colour was really interesting as it was not something that I had particularly questioned but after thinking about this it makes sense to use certain colours to show particular feelings within the image of perhaps attributes of the individual - it could be as simple as using a colour which is their favourite to show a tiny portion of their identity.
TV and Film - one thing that, again, I hadn't thought about within my work, is how photography and film relate to one another again and again and are always taking reference from one another and inspiring the other medium in ways. The director Wes Anderson and tv series Twin Peaks were two examples that Rachel gave that she felt my work had a vibe of.
Artificial - when looking at my work, Rachel used the word 'artificial' to question what I was doing and the aim my project had. I thought this was a really interesting angle to look at my project from because I am trying to get as many different viewpoints as I can to then make my work really considered - it also makes me question the way in which people view my work and whether or not what I want to be seen is being communicated by what I am presenting.
I then decided to briefly show her some fashion images that I had shot within the past year, as I want to start doing this a lot more within my own personal time alongside my project at university and she gave me a lot of great feedback on that, too - telling me which type of photography she believes clients are wanting to see and ways of improving the work.
I am so very pleased that I went to this review with Rachel, as it has really calmed me in the sense of meeting people within the industry I am hoping to get into. It was extremely helpful to me within my university work and any work I want to do outside of university, too.
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