Essay
For my personal project, my focus will be on the Alternative community, photographing people of subcultures focusing on the stereotypes within society targeted towards certain subcultures and showing how we use fashion and music to express ourselves. I have been a part of the alternative community for a few years now but have always been interested in the goth subculture. I always liked the dark horror vibes and the aesthetic, but I was always scared to dress the way I wanted due to people’s views on it within society.
I started using music to express myself and to escape from reality which led me to the path of finally accepting who I was and who I wanted to be. The emo subculture is a massive part of my life now and I am no longer afraid to dress or express myself like I was before. There are many people who are like me and are interested in certain aspects of the alternative community but are scared to try it out and dive in deeper to the culture due to the fear of other people’s viewpoints. In the past I have been laughed at, shouted at by the older generations and religious protestors and have got dirty looks in public by random people I do not know which makes this project very personal to me and something that I want to go in depth into. In this project I want to show people that we are not like the stereotypes that are associated with us and want to show how we express ourselves through fashion and music. In society today, people fear others who are different but as the younger generations are becoming more open and accepting, so are the older generations and this is something that I hope my project will help society see. I hope that through my project, people will get a greater understanding of the alternative community and change their viewpoints as they learn more about it and understand why we decide to dress and listen to the music that we choose to.
I believe it is important to bring awareness to the negative views and opinions that people have about us and I also believe it is important to bring to light events that have happened that the media never really talked about but instead cast to the side such as the death of Sophie Lancaster who was part of the goth subculture and was beaten to death by people she didn’t know in a hate crime which was never dealt with appropriately and her boyfriend never got justice.
I feel like bringing up sensitive issues will help bring awareness to the importance of showing how we are all the same and we should all respect each other no matter what our appearance is like or interests. Being part of the alternative community means that events like this really hit home as everyone who is different can relate to the fear of just leaving our homes due to what could happen and the fear our parents have when we tell them that we are different and want to stand out from society.
The media never really went into depth about the hate crime as Sophie was not a conventional member of society, as she was different. Therefore, for my work I want to use a range of different types of photography such as documentary, portraiture, fashion and location photography. I want to try and photograph people of subcultures in their daily lives while also focusing on the fashion and ways that we express ourselves such as with music photographing musical performances such as concerts. I also want to do location shoots such as with graveyards showing a stereotype to the darker subcultures using the contrast between light and dark to create meaning linking into the mental health aspects of the subcultures.
Currently in my project, most of my work has been heavily influenced by the work of Amanda Norman who uses typical gothic settings to photograph locations and objects such as graves while using exposure to show her struggle with mental health by reflecting that there is always light in the darkest of places showing how society can influence our mental wellbeing by pushing us out.
Currently in my work I have done three shoots that are influenced by Amanda Normans work, two experimenting with exposure to create meaning and one graveyard location shoot to show a gothic stereotype but also to reflect mental health within subcultures. Acceptance is a big thing within subcultures and most of us are highly accepting of others who are also different within society such as those of different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and those of different cultures as we know first-hand that it is not a ‘phase’ like everyone says it is but instead it is a ‘lifestyle’ that we live our daily lives around.
I think the image of one of Amanda’s photographs above expresses this theme of mental health associated with subcultures and youth well. I feel like it clearly shows the darker aspects of certain subcultures and shows how there are other options and ways to feel better without going down darker paths and while creating awareness and emotive effect through her strong photography.
I want my outcome to be an editorial booklet or photobook so therefore I have been looking at booklets with text such as the alternative press zine as well as other zines and editorials like kerrang which photograph and document. I want my editorial to represent the alternative community and show how being different should not mean being cast out but instead be accepted and understood as most of the negativity is due to people not knowing much about us and believing in negative stereotypes instead of taking the time to research and learn more about different subcultures without judging at first sight.
Bibliography
https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/derek-ridgers
https://amandanorman.com/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ylime90/emo-photoshoot/
