Fashion Constructed Image: Critical Appraisal

With this project, we were faced with many different challenges. Working as part of a team, we started by developing a concept around the ideas of anti-consumerism. We wanted to show how the everyday man is surrounded and controlled by the large corperations. We started by looking at such astists as Andy Warhol, and how he used his art as a political statement. From there we we developed many different set ideas, taking influence from his work, and other artists such as Chris Jordan, aswell as scenes from the film Hurt Locker. After much work and many different set concepts, we came up with a final idea, that incoorperated all of the ideas we had into one set.

For our casting, we started searching for someone who looked like they worked a 9 to 5 office job, not unsimilar to a character you would see in the television programme 'The Office'. My search started with studens of the university, and spread out to other people we didnt know. We cast around 12 people for the shoot, narrowing it down to two models, Tom and Brendon. Tom was our main choice of model, but due to other commitments, had to pull out last minuite. Luckily Brendon was more than willing to fill in for us. Styling our model, we wanted to make him look smart, but not someone who stood out. Even though this was a fashion shoot, our piece was very much against the idea of mass consumerism. We looked into many different styles of suits and colours before settling on a simple blue suit with white shirt and tie.

I think the building of the set was one of our weakest parts of the project, purely through lack of proper planning and a lack of team management or structure. Our build started off rocky, but after the first day we had everything planned and were well ont he way to building the set. Once the set was built and lit, we spent a good 5 hours trying to find the right pose for our model. We wanted him to look as though he was lost and falling through this world of products. From a final 5 we had chosen, we picked one and begun post production.

I found that our image didnt have as many flaws in it as we had first feared, so post production was a fairly short process.

Overall, i feel we did our concept justice with this project. Our final image, whilst keeping some elements of a fashion image, still upholds the ideas we were trying to convey. The only thing i felt we faild at as a group was communication and preparation. Because of this, our first couple of days building suffered and we were left to rush the build.