Evaluation

Evaluation

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When I first read the brief for this project I instantly thought the opposite; look at ‘homeless’. I wanted to look at different aspects of homelessness from locations to clothing styles. To research the clothing I observed people on the street to see the kinds of clothing the homeless wear. I also looked online for how homelessness has influenced fashion. I looked at film influences specifically Zoolander as it took homelessness into fashion. I found that a small number of celebrities have been wearing 90s inspired grunge fashion. I also took some inspiration from the boho look as it is very similar to grunge it is just more feminine.

I joined ‘model mayhem’ to contact professional models and stylists. I got in contact with a model, Kate Smith, who thought my idea for the project sounded interesting and wanted to work with me. Along with contacting a model I messaged a stylist who is a second year at UCLan, she was quite busy but agreed to help if she had time. My flat mate does styling and said that she would happily look over my outfits and help with some ideas.

I had clear ideas of what I wanted my images to look like. Originally I wanted to shoot only on location in grungy dark, damp places. However due to unreliable weather I decided that I would try a shoot in the studio as I had more control over the environment. I thought that I could construct a scene using boxes and low light to imitate an outdoor location. However the lighting got changed and the images didn't come out as well as I had hopped. Thankfully I did this shoot before the holidays which meant I had enough time to shoot again. Unfortunately the stylist was busy for the second shoot, I spoke to her the day before the shoot and showed her the the clothing I had, she created some outfits for me; my flat mate also helped telling me what styles will soon be seen on the high street.

The second shoot worked a lot better. In this shoot I was fighting against lighting as I wanted to use natural light and street lights. I wanted to use this light as it would intensify the grungy look. I struggled getting the settings on the camera to work and create bright enough images. Originally I was going to shoot this shoot on film however my model failed to get back to me so I had to arrange it last minute. This meant that I wouldn't have had time to send off the film and get it developed. The camera I had intended to use was also quite temperamental.

I feel that I developed my work to use influences from my research and show the homeless look in different ways. I looked at outdoor rough areas where a homeless person may shelter, I took influences from clothing a homeless person may wear and used clothing which would be warm yet stylish and grungy.