How does fashion shape social identities?

“Once you have a person in front of you that oozes this kind of energy, by dressing them up or allowing them to wear their own styles, the strength of their personality instantly comes out.” (Iordan 2015)

As Hassan Hajjaj says in the above quote, people’s styles and clothing play a substantial part in expressing their personality. And if you allow them to wear what they’re comfortable in their personality does instantly shine through. This also plays a large role in social identity; the way we dress affects both how we view ourselves, as well as how others view us, and possibly judge us on the way we dress. In this personal project I will focus on exploring social identity and how it is shown/expressed through fashion. I will do this mainly through portrait photography and more specifically full body shots; implementing the style of Hassan Hajjaj into my work. I will do this by trying to capture the subject’s personality and strengths through their style and body language, I will also implement the same contrasting bold colours into my work. I will also try break fashion stereotypes such as in Hassan Hajjaj’s ‘Kesh Angels’ portrait series where he photographs the Kesh Angles biker group who wear Hijabs and ride around the city, in most places in the area this is either looked down upon or illegal. I will also try implement close-up portraiture into this project, in the style of Rankin who heavily focuses on face and top 1/3 portraits. Rankin focuses a considerable amount on social identity throughout his work which I will take inspiration from in my project. This includes projects such as “Selfie Harm” (Hosie 2019) project; where Rankin took portraits of teens and gave them 15 minutes to edit their portraits to a ‘social media ready’ standard. I will also possibly include elements of tableaux photography in my project, I will try use this to help exaggerate the above mentioned themes through acting, in hopes of achieving an image which shows exaggerated levels of confidence, or the lack of it. I will use this to show the contrast of how fashion can affect us mentally.

Throughout my personal study I will explore specific fashion items which society views as valuable or desirable, as well as comparing them to fashion items which have been similarly desirable throughout history. It is very interesting to look at the most desirable fashion items throughout history as they have remained without change for the most part. In the Victorian period the most desirable fashion items were most commonly jewelry, and more specifically earrings, necklaces and rings. Some other desirable items for men included side chains; which were long and very detailed, usually reaching lengths of over 60 inches. When compared to modern desirable items they are extremely similar, with there still being a very high interest and demand for for jewelry such as necklaces and earrings. The only differences are a shift in rarity of rings (as much cheaper rings are available today, starting at prices of around £1-2) and the way chains are worn. Although they did exist in the 19th century as previously mentioned, they are worn in a different way in modern times, as well as having a different meaning to what they did throughout history. However, all of these items still have the same base purpose, to establish individuality and show class. This shows how society and its views have barely progressed in the last 200 years or so, as the same items are still used to show social status, and although this has slightly evolved, we still use the same methods to express our social identity. And in certain aspects this has become worse, because as a society with value what the society thinks of us drastically more and to the point where it is unhealthy; even causing people to self harm or commit suicide because they don’t achieve the standards set out for them.

Many aspects of staged/tableaux photography aren’t supposed to represent or imitate real life, but take inspiration from real events or possibly issues and build on them, with varying amounts of abstract ideas and elements. These abstract elements are often used as tools to help communicate ideas across to the audience. Exaggerating an issue to a scale much larger than it is in reality can help make it stand out more, and therefore make the audience take it into account more. As an example, in my book ‘Prejudice’ the person who fell victim to knife crime ended up being the one convicted due to him wearing darker clothing, and having a more menacing appearance (large black puffer jacket), compared to the attacker who was wearing a brightly coloured hoodie, which makes him perceived as more innocent and harmless. This scenario would obviously never happen in the real world as firstly the victim would be dead after the assault, but he would also definitely not be convicted purely as a result of what he was wearing. But creating a more extreme scenario helps get the message of how our clothing affects how we are treated and perceived much more clearly than if they were only subtle hints, and not the main reason for his conviction. Tableaux images such as these can also raise subconscious awareness of issues. Such as the inclusion of knife crime in my book which aims to raise awareness of knife crime, without explicitly mentioning it. I chose to implement this as knife crime has “reached an unprecedented high”(Badshah 2019) this year, amassing “44,076 knife offences”(Badshah 2019) in the past 12 months. With the English and Welsh combined population being around 56 million; nearly 1% (1 in 100) of the whole population has fallen a victim to knife crime this year alone.

In my response I implemented a similar tableaux nature to Hassan Hajjaj’s work, with the models wearing the clothes which expressed them the best, and in which they felt the most comfortable. As a result of this they were all very confident in the photos, staring straight down the lens with open and sometimes intimidating body language. However, I added a darker twist to all the photo shoots by making all the images grungy and darker; still containing vibrant colours, but taken at night and with the negative space being filled with darkness. This is because I wanted to discretely tell a story about discrimination due to clothing. This is something in turn inspired by Rankin; he often does projects based around raising awareness for certain subjects, them often being taboo subjects.

I have used a bright flash in all the photos to help capture all the colours in the scene as the shoots took place at night. I also applied exposure, offset, and gamma correction filters in order to make the images consistently brighter and appear more vibrant, i have also occasionally applied vibrance and contrast filters to help achieve this. I have also taken the large majority of photos from a lower angle, looking up at the models, in order to further emphasize their confidence and presence by literally making them appear larger, and almost towering over the camera. I have once again done all this in order to achieve a style similar to Hassan Hajjaj, despite the photos being darker due to their setting. I have also applied black bars to the majority of my images, this is in order to keep the models anonymous. It isn’t due to their personal request, but instead it is about subtly questioning the ideas of identity. It keeps all of their identities hidden, yet they are all still easily recognizable throughout the sets of images due to their clothing.

I have used the previously mentioned style for exactly half of my book ‘Prejudice’. For the second half of the book I wanted to create a story with my responses, and I have produced images which resemble CCTV footage with heat mapping. It is the story of discrimination and prejudice due to clothing and appearance which I have previously mentioned. The elements of the images with a heat map filter applied are the focal points of the images, with the heat mapping diverting the viewer’s attention to them. The heat mapping also varies from warm tones (red, yellow, green) to cold tones (blue, navy, purple). This is done to signify the shift of the people in the photos becoming cold, heartless, inside. a subtle hint to how knife crime can change a person.

To conclude, fashion can drastically change someone’s social identity, and can especially affect how someone is judged upon first impressions. It can also majorly affect how someone is treated, purely based on their appearance. Throughout my responses I have taken inspiration from two very different photographers, Rankin usually applying a deeper significance to his images and working with usually taboo subjects, and Hassan Hajjaj who normally expresses the confidence and rebellion within people instead. However they both achieve the same goal, showing how different and unique everyone is, and often also showing how much fashion can change this identity.

Finally, I feel like it is extremely important to raise awareness about this issue, how society needs to change and retain from judging people based on their appearance, and treat them all equally regardless.

Bibliography:

Marina Iordan (July 15 2015) Karima: A Day In The Life Of A Henna Girl – Interview with Hassan Hajjaj Art Radar Dec 13 2019 https://artradarjournal.com/2015/07/15/karima-interview-with-hassan-hajjaj/

Rachel Hosie (February 5 2019) A photographer asked teenagers to edit their photos until they thought they looked ‘social media ready,’ and the results are shocking Insider: New York City https://www.insider.com/selfie-harm-photo-series-rankin-asks-teens-to-edit-photos-until-social-media-ready-2019-2 Dec 13 2019

Nadeem Badshah (October 17 2019) Knife crime hits record high in England and Wales The Guardian: London https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/17/knife-hits-new-record-high-in-england-and-wales