The Commission- Photographer Research

Photographer Research
I became interested in the idea of using second hand clothing in my work, as recycling fashion is a important part in helping to stop the mass consumption of clothing from shops that cause all of the waste. I decided to look into photographers that have used second hand clothing in there work. I also looked into photographers that archive pieces of clothing. The idea of archiving fashion really appealed to me as it archives the importance of clothing and the role they play in our everyday life. By just photographig the clothing and not the person who owns it leaves you to wonder what they would be like and why was they wearing that particular item.

Ida Taavitsainen

Ida Taavitsainen is an Alumni student at the University for the creative arts. 'The memory of my wardrobe' is a project she made about the relationship between clothes and memory. She became interested in the stories behind her clothing as many of her clothes had belonged to someone else such as family members. She started by interviewing the person who owned the clothes before her to get to know the stories behind them. Taavitsainen became interested in the environmental aspect of the clothes and how they were made to last and how there is an issue with throw away fashion now. The first section of her project is called 'Story telling' and looks at the relationship between the background and the props with the clothing, it also includes text with the images to talk about the relationship and the history. In the second part, 'Absent Bodies' Taavitsainen makes the clothing look almost sculptural as she wants them to look alive and speak in the absence of the person. 

Siru Kivisto

Photographer Siru Kivisto's series called 'Layered Within' looks into fashion and mass consumption. Her images are inspired by Renaissance portraiture and express the relationship between an item of clothing that is no longer a treasured object. She represents this in her work by having the model wear many layers of clothing which adds an awkward feel to her images. Her image plays with contradictions of fashion such as ugliness and beauty, new and old, natural and artificial. I found her work to be really inspiring with how she represents mass consumption by layering the model in lots of clothes which adds a different view to the clothing.

Jeanette Montgomery Barron.
'My mothers clothes' is a series by photographer Jeanette Montgomery Barron. She started taking pictures of her mothers clothes and accessories when her mum became ill with Alzheimer's to help her remember her past. When talking about the project Barron said: 

This project started because my mother had to move from a big house in Virginia where she lived. She had started becoming difficult to manage and she would leave the water running and flood the house or she would get in the car, drive and get lost. So we had to move her, but at home she had this huge closet of clothes and, almost as a part of a daily ritual, she would go in everyday and do a sort of inventory. I didn’t know what she was going to do with all that, so I thought about doing a sort of catalogue or an album of her closet, taking shots of her clothes and putting them all in a scrapbook for her. I live and work in Rome, but I’m often back and forth between the States and Italy, so I put a bunch of clothes in a suitcase, brought them back with me and started taking photographs.

Documenting the clothes in this way almost turns them in to a portrait themselves as they start to represent her mother even after she has gone.

Danny Treacy 

'Them' is a photographic series by Danny Treacy. He creates eerie suits out of abandoned clothing which he wears to become 'Them'. The styling of the clothing makes Treacy look as if he is an urban warrior or an mythical beast as he is faceless which adds an element of fear. 
The dark background looks very threatening and and makes the model look very vulnerable as he is in the centre of it. The subject looks as if he is appearing out of the darkness and coming towards you because of how he is brightly lit in comparison to the background. By using clothing that has been abandoned or recovered adds a eerie feel to the image as Treacy wears the clothing that was once a strangers and becomes 'them'. The idea of using clothes that belonged to someone else really inspired me as it allows you to use your imagination on who they could have belonged to. I also like the intimate feeling the clothing creates in the image as the figures look familiar just because of the clothing they are wearing. 

Melissa Moore 

'Know the edge' is a series of self-portraits made by photographer Melissa Moore in 2004. I was inspired by her work as she uses clothing that is recycled as she uses the clothes of people who have inhabited the spaces. Her images have a very playful feel with the way she positions her self on top of furniture and with the decorations of the rooms. Her work is centred on the exploration of locations through performance in relation to the camera. In every image the whole of her figure is never revealed due to the crop used and with how the clothes conceal her identity. The way her images are staged capture the relationship between body and architecture. 

Riitta Päiväläinen

Riitta Paivalainen creates images of second hand clothing that has been made into sculptural pieces. She collects the clothing from flea markets and chartity shops, the images have a presence of humanity in them even though there is no models. When talking about the series the photographer said :

'Several years ago, an old black dress made of velvet caught my attention in a second-hand shop. I examined the garment carefully. There was no label. The style of the dress was from the twenties. The seams revealed the dress was handmade. The owner of the shop told me that she had bought it in Paris. I tried the dress on and it fitted me perfectly. I became intrigued by the history of the dress. Who was the woman who had had the dress made? What was her life story?'

I like the idea of using second hand clothing in my own work as each piece has a story behind it  which is an advantage compared to store bought clothes. The clothing in the images symbolise the past and the stories of the unknown people who wore the clothing. By capturing the clothing in a natural environment captures the relationship between the fashion industry and nature, this emphasises the effect clothing waste can have on the environment.

Ishiuchi Miyako

This series of work contains forty eight photographs of clothing that was left behind by victims of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima that happened in 1945. The images are very personal as it captures everyday items that once belonged to someone. They also have a very intimate feel because of how the photographer captures items that once belonged to someone and continue to exist in the present. I found this series of work to be very inspiring with how he captures the importance of clothing and how they are very powerful in telling someone about a person.

Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher

Learning to love you more is a website by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher which asks the public to contribute to assignments that they post on there site. Assignment #55 was to photograph a significant outfit this could be from an important or significant day in your life. The idea was to lay your outfit on the floor including all the accessory's you were wearing. This assignment makes your clothes have an importance which is normally overlooked. 

"What I was wearing the night he and I ended up dancing in the street at 6 AM"

"This is what I was wearing when I gave it all away and I didn't even care."

Hans Peter Feldmann

'All clothes of women' in a series of pictures by Hans Peter Feldmann. The series includes small black and white photos of 71 different pieces of clothes. The owner of the clothing is present through the items which leaves the viewers to wonder who the owner is. This series has an intimate feel because of the way the photographer has taken the trouble of photographing which makes you feel a connection with it. In this series Feldmann has captured everyday life by looking into items that are normally overlooked and don't seem of importance to some people. By taking images of other peoples clothes makes you wonder why he has chosen to photograph that certain piece and why it is of importance.