Ravensbourne Photo Shoot w. Details

(Garments constructed by Myself, Photographs taken by Photography Student)

Models: Mia Ryder/ Briony Mitchel

      I am ecstatic with the results I managed to achieve from both my garment construction and models. Admittedly, I did no fitting for any of the garments because none of the models were available beforehand, hence I had to go by instinct and it went perfectly with no adjustments at all! In regards to my models, I really wanted to have them look very similar to each other; this is due to a message I want to portray in my photo shoot and this being that I want to represent different fragments of mind loss placed on the human form. In addition to this, I have had my mind set on creating 2 garments and it would have been extremely difficult to just have the one garment as I felt very confident in both my garments. Unfortunately, I did not do produce any images within this photo shoot at Ravensbourne, as our tutors had pre-organised other students to come in and do it. I must admit, the photos did come out very well although there are a few images which do not have the correct lighting or at a slight angle which is slightly frustrating, but overall I am very happy with the turnout. 

    The main aim of this shoot was to originally get a front, side, back profile perspective of the garments I had made. Although, both my tutor and the photographer took a real keen interest in my pieces and decided to take a few other shots of my models posing and doing actions such as holding hands, looking at each other and so on… I think what made this shoot even more effective was the white backdrop; I feel that it really correlates well with my theme of "Living with Demenita" in which it shows the absence of the surrounding area or location, similarly to someones mind who has Alzheimer's. It was rather a coincidence, when my models tried on the garments, one said, "I feel like an old lady" which was exactly the sort of response I wanted! This meant that my model could feel more in character and would portray the Dementia patients younger self, which is usually the most common era where they have most of their memories.

     The detail on the knit pieces were fascinating in my opinion as I hadn't seen the garments actually being worn on a human silhouette. Despite this, my favourite detail on my garments has to be the holes I managed to produce on the knit machine, carrying out a strong message to those who perceive it, yet take their own impression of my theme. I really liked the way you could see skin peeping through the holes in many different locations adding more tones, shades and even light to the body which isn't usually seen on ordinary garments. I feel as if I have truly challenged myself within this project and it has definitely paid of in terms of the construction of the garments and knitwear. Not only this, but my print pieces worked very nicely weaved into the knit as it added subtle tones of colour throughout, but without it being too overpowering which was what I was trying to avoid. It is a shame not more print was incorporated with the garments, but I fear that it would have been too much for the capsule collection and it could have possible even made it look really rather tacky and it would have been such a disappointment. 

    My main photo shoot which I will be doing on location should be much more exciting and engaging as I have it planned to be in an antique themed living room. This should be a very relatable setting for my theme in regards to Dementia commonly being diagnosed with elderly people, hence I wanted to relate back to this shoot and portray my models as being the Dementia patients, but in their younger selves. Moreover, the room has floral carpeting, leather sofas, antique tea sets and porcelain objects all around the room, so I will try my best to adapt my models and their poses within the room as much as possible. One thing I am proud to say was that I tried to make sure that my models really looked the part, hence I didn't want them to be wearing hardly any makeup, although I added a small amount of glitter on the side of their eyes to represent slight hope and creativity to bring the memories back. Not only this, but I didn't want my models wearing any jewellery or accessories as I wanted them to be as bare, natural, vulnerable and innocent looking as possible to reflect back on the elderly characteristics. If I could have done anything differently within this shoot, it would have been to have played around more with the positioning of the knits and perhaps trying to direct the photographer to get more of the shots I wanted, although saying this, I wanted to get someone else's approach to my work and seeing this has really boosted my confidence in my work for my Final Major Project (FMP).