In Conversation With Sahr

For one of my photo shoots I am planning to use my friend Sahr (Honey) as a model. So I thought it would be interesting to get some primary research and interview her about her obsessions. We had a long conversation and I filmed it. I was going to cut it down and edit it but my computer broke preventing me from doing that, also I find the full video more natural and more like a conversation than an interview. I think I may get into a habit of interviewing or conversing with my models for films and shoots and filming it as research because it was fun and also gave me lots of ideas and thoughts. This conversation actually led to new thoughts and ideas around my theme, she also thinks very differently from me so it gave me new perspective on my own theme. She had also inspired the colour for my theme which is now orange.

                                            (Video Authors own)

Final Fashion Film

This is the final product of our fashion film shoot. ..

Video By Madison Marie Pelley, Nancy, and  Lena Marie

Fashion Film part 2

Thanks to Lena we got another model from her agency to be part of our film. We began at 12, we started off by shooting some shots for the model Sophie's agency then began the real work. We shot till around 4 or 5 o'clock. We decided to scrap using the boots and focus on the material which is a beige transparent colour. We also decided to paint their bodies with paint to make look as if they have bruises. I feel like the make up added the emotion of war and an injured childhood. We also wanted to make the connection between the models look as pure as possible and almost as if they were in their mothers womb wrapped up in umbilical chord and uterus lining. A peaceful atmosphere to contrast with their bruises and tired messy look. With our combined efforts I feel as though we achieve this very well. Lena's idea of the paint, Nancy giving good direction and finding the perfect music, and I contributed with the material, filming and helping find the light and layout of the image on camera.

Our team worked very well together.  We fed off each others ideas to develop the project further. And we all contributed our talents and pushed each other in a real postie way that helped us progress.

After we had finished shooting we were all a bit tired and a little down hearten and ready to breakdown and cry, thinking we had set our selves and impossible task. But we were determined to see our project come to together and be finished. We spent at least two hours gathering the videos, cutting them down and editing together a nice sequence. By the end of the editing process we were all jumping out of our seats and on a post fashion film creating high. There could be a bit more refining and editing done but over all I am very pleased with the outcome. We didn't touch up the colour or contrast or anything at all because it looked good natural, and gave off the vibe we were after as it was.

I took a few photos of the process...

We made a little mess - Image Authors own 

Putting the pain on Lena's back - Image authors own 

The intestine looking object we used as an umbilical cord - Image authors own 

Obsession

I began this proejct looking at very obvious ideas related to structure and attachment. I felt the need to get away from the obvious. So I then pushed a little harder and  began looking at love. I thought about swans and how they mate for life and then famous couples. I was intrigued by the success two people could build together and the lives they live. I then one evincing while making my way home had a conversation with a friend about our obsessive nature. Like obsessing over TV shows, movies, or boys. It got me thinking about obsessive love, head over heels, whole hearted love. This idea of obsessiveness was on my mind all day and all night so I decided it was time to take my idea to the next level from love to obsessiveness.But also keeping in mind my other theme family structure.


Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). It's also possible to have only obsessions or only compulsions and still have OCD.

• Checking 
• Contamination 
• Mental contamination 
• Hoarding 
• Ruminations/Intrusive thoughts 
• Compulsions 
• Symmetry/ orderliness 
• Avoidance 

Besides OCD I want to look at obsessions in a more subtle way too. For example obsessions with food, clothes, cars, coffee, addiction..ETC

I think I can push this idea very far and even look at other mental illnesses (potentially...maybe not)

Fashion FIlm

Today we started our week of fashion film. I had watched a few the night before just to get a feel for the whole concept. I also am well experienced in making videos, and it is something that I enjoy alot so I was very excited fo this week.

We started off learning about the software premiere and the basics of how to use it. As this is a completely new software for me it was a bit challenging.  I have downlaoded it onto my laptop so I can have a play about with it and being to furthure understnad it.

We got into groups of three and were told our assingmet. By the end the week we need to have a one minuet long fashion film based on structure and attachemnt, so exciting. My group sat down and disscused eachothers themes for the general project. We bounced of each other really well, I could tell that we were a motivared group and would get work done and work good togehter. We soent half an hour disscusing and building our idea and by the end of the day were very excited about it. We are going to film on Wednesday and I am itching with anticipation.

Our general concept has to do with children in war, playing off the innocence and innocence losts. The relationship to attachment and structure is two people seperateed bya conflict (war) and are trying to reconnect or reattach. There is also a connection with the use of material and the intestine looking model  is suppposed to represent an umbilical and the attachment of a child and mother. There is also a sense of anotomical structure and the human form. We decided that the fashion side of our video would be the boots the models would wear. we chose to use Doc martens as they have a very ocmbat boot feel. We also disscused how we want it to be visually. We are hoping to create something with lots of movemenet that displays emotion.

Tate Modern

I had won tickets to London fashion weekend on Saturday. So I took my friend along with me to somerset house.  We got there and the tickets we won couldn't get us into any talks or shows so we walked around the show rooms and looked at some beautiful clothes. We then went down stairs where there were two exhibitions, one was called Tattoo art today and the other one I am not sure what it was called.After this we weren't ready to call it a day so we walked down the river to the Tate Modern.

Here are some images of pieces I particularly liked at these exhibitions. 

(All images authors own) 

I love the fact that the Tate Modern is in an old power station, it gives the area a real modern vibe and an inspiring atmosphere. There was a whole section of work by Lousie Bourgeois which I particularly liked. I love the way you can get a real sense of who she is just by looking at her work. I am still thinking of ways I can link her work to attachment and structure because I would love to reference her.

One display of photographs had an image that was so beautiful, it was a multiple exposure image of a lamp post (I believe) I don't know why I didn't take a phtoogrpah of this image or at least write down the name. However it did inspire me to take a few multiple exposure shots while at the Tate.

Multiple exposure 1 (Madison Marie Pelley) 

Multiple exposure 3 (Madison Marie Pelley) 

Fashion promotion

 September 15 - 19
Muses and Building Charcters 

This week we thought  about muses and finding inspiration, then using that to build a character to develop into a photo shoot or anything else related to fashion.

For my muses I chose Iris Apfel, Katherine Hepburn, and Curella De Vile. 

It took me awhile to come up with the last muse, Katherine Hepburn. But then I watched The African Queen and loved the class and whole atmosphere of her. I also was inspired by the time period she was an actress in, 1920's 30's. I liked the black white look. So I decided I wanted to make a short film to represent my Character and I wanted it to be black and white like a katherine Hepburn film. 

I decided my character would be called Auntie Isis. An old lady who once was young and lived a wild youth. She is your favourite aunt and grew into a wise woman.  

So I madea little story board and asked some of my friends to be my models. However on the day I encountrered a few problems which led to a few changes. For example I was going to have Auntie Isis wear a fur jacket but I was unable to get the jacket so I had to come up with alternate outfits. Also originally Auntie Isis was going to be called Auntie Barbra then I though I should make her name more of a homage to Iris Apfel. Lastly I was going to have my two characters fall in love on a train, as I thought about it that seemed rather tacky and cliche so I had the
characters already in love before the film even begins. 

story board 1 by Madison Marie Pelley

story board 2 by Madison Marie Pelley 

 I spent the whole day filming and lugging around a giant bag of clothes. And then spent the entire night editing and trying to think of the perfect song to fit, I changed the song at least 5 times. Infact since I have presented the video to the class I changed the song again.

(Video authors own)

aswell as making a little film I decided to take some photgraphs incase my film completely failed and was so awful I didn't dare share it. I also liked how to photos turend out. I feel like they capture the true essence of Auntie Isis, innocent, beautiful, charming, and romantic. 

(All images authors own)

LFW - Street Style

(All Photographs Authors own)

London Fashion Week

This week we are specifically learning about Fashion promotion. Which is exciting and awesome. We spent the day down at Somerset House taking photos of people fabulously dressed and talking with them about their clothes and following peoples Instagram and twitters. It was fun benign surrounded by people who all love what you love...CLOTHES. I got a whole heap of photos and fashion inspiration. This experience has increased my confidence in approaching and talking with people. I met a bunch of different bloggers, photographers, and designers. I met one really awesome designer of TZUJI, we had a conversation about fashion and the industry and he had a lot of encouraging advice and words of wisdom. He ultimately said having fun and being nice is the best thing you can do.

I also stopped at the Tate modern for a little browse at some pieces and to take in the breath taking view from the balcony.

I really enjoyed taking photos of peoples street style and feel like it is something that I would enjoy doing more of in the future. In fact I have made an Instagram page to put all of my street style photos. Hopefully I will continue creating a little archive of style inspiration.

Tate Britain

We did a 3D design workshop on Wednesday. Working with mannequins and various paper trying to think outside the box and construct shapes. We used 8 pieces of paper cut in the same shape for the first workshop. For the second we used pattern paper and cut 8 shapes and tried to attach the together rather than onto the mannequin to build some body and volume which was a little more challenging. It was hard to think of ways to attach them to form unusual and unique shapes, but after a few experiments I completed a shoulder piece that I was somewhat happy with. We then used one large sheet of paper and thought about ways to drape it over the mannequin, which sounds like it would be fairly simple and easy, it was not. With only one large piece of paper there are only so many ways you can hang it, twist it and shape it this workshop really got my brain working. The last activity we did, we cut a thin line of paper to represent the seam or edge of the garment. All of these workshops made me really explore alternate and interesting ways of creating garments. The last one we did reminded me of an artist Piet Mondrian. It reminded me of him because the seam outlines I made were very geometrical and there were lots of squares, very much like the work he does.

Image Authors own 

So at the end of the day feeling a little uninspired and stuck I thought I would go to the Tate Britain as I remembered seeing a Piet Mondrain there a few years ago. However tragically I got there and was informed they are now in the tate Liverpool. So instead of seeing piet mandarin I decided to walk about the gallery and discovered lots of beautiful pieces. There was a display of William Blake's work which was very exciting as he is one of my favourite poets. Not only did I find inspiration inside the Tate but also outside along the river many of the buildings were symmetric, geometrical, and very modern. The whole afternoon visit really gave me an extra shot of inspiration and rejuvenation.

Attachment mood board

Attachment. 

Connected, touching, apart of, needed.

Those are the words that floated around my head when thinking of attachment and while I sourced inspiration and images for my mood board.

I thought long and hard about that single word attachment. I thought about being attached to people, and relationships. I thought about holding hands, kissing, dancing. I thought about  family trees and then trees themselves and their roots and their leaves. It went on and on till I had almost to many concepts surrounding the word attachment.
In the end I concluded that in a way there is an attachment between all things throughout the whole universe, literally, figurative, physical, emotional. There is some sort of attachment.

I tried to find a layout of all my images that was perfect and I loved but it was challenging.

Things could be less tilted and more straight. I'd also like to have all the planets to create the full solar system. I think I may also add some more images to the right side.

Photograph Authors Own 

Here is my structure concept board...

Disobedient Objects Exhibition Review

From the 26 of July 2014 till February 1 2015 the V&A is displaying an exhibition called 'Disobedient Objects." It is a very eye opening, perspective widening experience. The concept behind the exhibition is objects that people use when disobeying the government or a ruling body, or objects used for movements and causes. The first object in the exhibition is the entrance which was a barricade, making the exhibition all that more interactive and fascinating. Then as you wonder through the exhibition and see all the various objects and learn the stories behind them you may find yourself truly enthralled of the inventiveness of people and their ways to fight for what they stand for.  There are lots of videos and even app games to get you more involved in the exhibition. Overall it is a fabulous exhibition that is very relevant to the modern times.

V&A and Saatchi Gallery Reviews: September 3rd 2014

The V and A gallery was established in 1852. The site and building that we now know as the V&A was moved to South Kensington in 1857. The idea and founding principle of the V&A was to make art available for all, to educate, and to inspire British designers and manufactures. This gallery most definitely succeeds at fulfilling its principle. Just to see the magnificent  structure of the building is worth the visit.  I entered the gallery throughout the tunnel entrance which is accessible from South Kensington station. The first collection from this entrance is textiles and fashion. The collection ranges  from 1200 through to modern times. There are also collections of articles from all around the world and from all periods of history. The V&A is a very cultural and inspiring experience.

 The Saatchi Gallery near Sloane Square is a perfectly quaint modern gallery. Owned by Charles Saatchi, the exhibition is known to range artist from all over the world who have interesting, fresh, modern views and express them through their work. There are three floors and a basement, the Saatchi gallery try's to exhibit up and coming modern artist. The work displayed rangers from sculptural, spacial, and canvas work too.

Installation by Richard Wilson at the Saatchi gallery. (Oil and Steel) Photo  Authors own.