We want to do, as Barbara does...

...through our fashion story.

Graham Dolphin

In our lecture the other day, where we discussed art and fashion: its crossovers and links, we were given plenty of names of creative people in creative industries and one man that stood out to me, when considering our ideas for the ‘matchbox’ shoot, was Graham Dolphin.

His name stuck out because Adam explained to us his projects and the work Dolphin creates: within his work he specialises in defacing beauty and fashion imagery, this is something I think we are wanting to consider in our shoot, whether it be on the day of the shoot or through post production. Dolphin's almost compulsion of re-presenting the objects, images, sounds and music of fashion as well as popular culture, is Dolphin's trademark in his work. Dolphin’s work focuses on objects and icons of the music and fashion industry, modernising them into constructed imagery that highlight obsessions with the progressive world of mass culture. In our shoot we want to highlight and look at ideas surrounding mass consumerism and ideas with complexities, rather than creating fashion imagery that just looks like ‘pretty’ and beautiful imagery. Each of us in the group prefer imagery that has underlining meaning.

I love the fact that Dolphin works onto his objects and images and adds layers to the imagery. His main way of introducing fashion in his work is through fashion advertisements- he kinda vandalizes the imagery and turns them into something else. Dolphin’s book, ‘Everything in Vogue’ mainly focuses on Dolphin’s fashion work but also portrays other projects he has been involved with.

Following Consumers.

We had our group meeting yesterday to discuss everyones initial ideas and decide on a path to go down for the new project.

Our idea at the minute came from simply the word, 'Match'. Moira had an idea to base a shoot around the idea of consumerism and mass reproduction, which from a stylist view and my personal view I really like, as I like to question the ideas behind brands and peoples behaviour. The definition for the word match includes the idea of 'similarity' and the connotations of a 'unit' of specifics. So with this in mind, and the idea of consumerism, specially at the minute, we have agreed on focusing the shoot on a 'uniform of people', in this case a model, alongside mannequins.

The meeting itself went really well: we work well together and it shows. We each had initial ideas for a shoot, but drew everyones ideas together, as they seem to work well.

This is my list of notes from the meeting;

-match- definition? in terms of fashion- an army of women
-warriors, army, militant (regarding style-the fall collections referenced heavily the military)
-look at fashion shows/designers that have meaning about the portrayal of women (hussein chalayan)
-Jeff Walls picture, Insomnia, colouring of image-photography format
-consumerism and mass reproduction
-using materials to change its purpose -resemble fire-chiffon, hot colours (lucinda chambers)
-army, on the street (early morning-light)
-smoke/mist over images
-cinematic style shots
-research any connections with smoking and the military(rationing of cigarrettes)
-playing with proportions -do one shoot the size of a barbie- use barbie as a model (ideas of mass reproduction/consumerism/similar/the same) and another shoot life size
-when sequencing and editing- have a strong visable narrative (put images in certain order)
-in shoot -model- odd one out, mannequins (they are very similar as they are mass produced, more so than a person) as the consumer society- wanting to look the same
-film stills
-mannequins lit up???
-research barbie- her portrayal/meaning/connotations

People to research-

Fashion:
-Helmut Newton- naked women, lined up
-Hussein Chalayan-how he portrays ideas of consumerism
-Lucinda Chambers (vogue stylist) who uses clothes in a shoot to change its use i.e trousers as a head piece

Photography:
-Glen Luchford-cinematic style
-Miles Aldrige constructive set ups
-Cindy Sherman (portrayal of women)
-Finley Mckay