Ways of Seeing: Proposal Abstract Street Wear Voyeurism
‘Ways of Seeing’ is our theme for the first semester which we must theoretically and visually investigate looking into voyeurism within this. Initially I was struck by the idea of jumping into exploring what seemed to be a very complex theme to me as I had never explored it. First: What does voyeurism mean?: by definition it means ‘obtaining gratification from observing 1 unsuspecting individuals.’ , it is also very often understood as a sexual term for observing, but – what does it mean for my photography? Within our brief it was explained that a voyeur merges themselves with the camera and uses it as an extension of the body. To me I feel that this is less of a sexual idea then, but instead more of a term referring to an artist’s connection to their practice. Therefore, this is the interpretation that I wish to follow in my project. Thus, for my own personal project and theme within the initial sets from the brief I have decided to focus on a number of elements that interest me combined into one, these include: • • • •
Street wear Fashion Looking in depth at unique details and textures that catch my eye Composition within shapes and lines The use of an abstract and unique style The voyeurism that then comes within this will be related to the idea that these photographs will be taken of street wear fashion style elements but will be of things that catch my eye personally and therefore my ‘way of seeing’ things of personal interest to me. In addition these themes, although different, I feel can all fit together in a very coherent and flowing manner as there are texture, shapes, lines and even a certain composition within all clothing that I can focus on and it is also easy to make something unique by making it personal to yourself as a photographer – also a large part of the voyeurism element.
Within this semester we have also been asked to develop final pieces from only analogue photography showing our aesthetic and contextual improvement and growing technical skills. This makes me slightly nervous as I have next to no experience with analogue photography but I am also excited to learn and feel that the effects of analogue photography will match the idea of exploring details and textures very well. Finally, it it important to also express a form of initial inspiration in this project and in this I have mainly decided to take inspiration from photographers who already inspire me and plan to then develop it further through visual and contextual research. Below is a list of my initial inspiration: (From left to right: Vicky Grout, Miles Aldridge, Christobal Escandilla & Lilly Bassman.) I have chosen these initial artists for a number of reasons. Recently I have found a lot of inspiration from Vicky Grout as she is a young yet very successful street wear photographer whose soft aesthetic style and simply composition I really love. This is something I want to translate in my own work. Miles Aldridge inspires me with his unique, abstract use of bright colour and almost exaggerated artificial placement which draws the audience into particular details, something else which I wish to translate into my own work. Equally both of these analogue photographers are ones I enjoy also particularly in their individual study of texture, one in a soft yet highlighted way and the other in a very abstract fine-art-style way using black and white. Further on I wish to look into these photographers and others in a more extended way to increase my inspiration more.
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Miriam Webster Online Dictionary
VISUAL COLLECTION Having now set out my initial ideas I have decided to now move onto visual research in order to develop my ideas and inspiration further. To begin this, I have put together a mood board of street wear inspired images that catch my eye and inspire me further.