ALEX SHAW

Collaborative Lookbook project with L5 Fashion Art Direction, Fashion Design and Fashion Design Technology students at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Garments: Joseph Makinson 

Model: Gareth Lewis

Art Direction: Emilia Woods, Alex Shaw, Bryony Hargreaves, Grace Potts

Editing: Sian Foley

Statement of Intent from my Final Major Project: 

For my Final Major Project, I have chosen to study the theme of gender and the social and cultural influences they have on modern day society. I will be using photography to present my work with the use of post-production software to enhance and develop my outcomes further. This is a continuation from my previous project in which I created concise photographic pieces that loosely represented the theme and research to inspire and accompany the work was comprehensive but limited. In this project I intend to create much bolder photographic pieces that take from and develop on those that I have already created but push the boundaries further and really create visually strong pieces. Continuing with a similar theme allows me to take into account both positives and negatives of my previous project to create a much stronger representation of the theme this time around.

As a starting point, I will create a comprehensive and extensive body of research to inspire and inform my practical development. This will include work from a broad range of different artists using a wide range of different techniques in order to present many different ideas and show that I have considered techniques that are outside of my intentions, but may still help to influence and develop my work throughout the project.

Key sources for my project include two of the most popular culture publications; Dazed & Confused and i-D Magazine. As an avid reader of both of these magazines, I have found that both magazines give diverse representations of today’s society covering many cultures and subcultures that are not presented in mainstream media. I will be primarily using both of these magazines’ online content in my research to give the most accurate representation of my theme and also the kind of work I intend to create myself. Alongside other publications both in the form of magazines and books, I will have a comprehensive body of research to inspire and accompany my project.

To physically create my work, I intend to use a combination of iPhone and Digital Camera photography. The use of iPhone photography will be mostly in development stages for ease and accessibility. I also think that photographs taken with an iPhone would accurately represent the social media element of the theme, maintaining a youthful and progressive aspect in the physical outcomes as well as the subjects in each piece. Digital Camera photography will be used for my Final Piece photography in order to get the most crisp and defined image to modify and enhance and to eventually be exhibited as part of the end of year exhibition. In post-production I plan on using a variety of editing platforms such as Adobe Photoshop (for Digital Camera images) and VSCO (for iPhone imagery.