Eastern fashion photography—de-Westernized?

Is this non-Western fashion photography? Actually, many Eastern fashion photographers are influenced by Western fashion. Chen Man's "Twelve Colours of China" series is highly renowned. The series celebrates China's twelve traditional colours and cultural history. However, Chinese viewers have complained that her models and make-up appeal to Western stereotypes and discriminate against Chinese people. Chen Man's photos were taken for a foreign corporation to meet brand needs and international beauty standards, regardless of aesthetics. Thus, she photographed in a foreign style. We must admit that East and West civilizations differ greatly. If such a gap exists objectively, China's local art and design forces must speak out openly and create a Chinese style that the Chinese people can identify with and be proud of. Again, ingenuity can be used to represent the elegance of Chinese style. Most importantly, it must actively promote Chinese culture in the global fashion and cultural system. There are many talented local painters and designers. In his poem "The Ballad of East and West," Radiyad Kipling predicted that "East is East and West is West; these two will never meet." However, Kipling could never have envisaged that, due to advances in transportation and communication technologies, people from the West and the East, who originate from very different cultures, would suddenly meet so often in international settings. However, Kipling was right because people with different cultural patterns (including beliefs, values, attitudes, norms, customs, and material aspects), particularly those from the East and West, experience communication breakdowns, misunderstandings, and even conflicts and confrontations because they don't understand cross-cultural communication. Because people with diverse cultural patterns—including views, values, attitudes, conventions, practises, and material aspects—communicate differently. (2009) 2003 (Chingxue) Photographers like Chen Man, who are forced to follow Western aesthetics, recognise the divide between East and West. Naturally, globalisation has sped up, and the world, where Western fashion is the mainstream, has no choice but to acknowledge that fashion from the East has permeated all corners of the world, and artists from the East are working hard to give Eastern fashion photography its rightful place in Western culture. However, nationalism is rising worldwide, weakening Western hegemony. This improves cultural mixing. Fashion photography grew due to environmental change. To make culture a more long-term and permanent development in history, people should learn from others' abilities to compensate for their own weaknesses. Culture is developed by choosing the best and dismissing the worst. Is this non-Western fashion photography? Yes or no is possible. Our worldview or ideology is shaped by our beliefs and values, yet culture is complex and interwoven. These include beliefs, values, conventions, and materials. Cultural patterns help us discuss these tendencies collectively. Cultural patterns affect how people view and live in the world. (2009) 2003 (Chingxue) The globalisation of culture makes DE-Westernization harder because no culture can survive without borrowing from other civilizations. Eastern culture will take time to settle and amass, thus the current hurry to abandon Western design in fashion photography is unwise. Eastern culture wants to be as popular as Western culture, but it will take time. Fashion photographers are aware of this, therefore even their earlier works show the effects of Eastern and Western cultural traditions. This helps Western culture dominate.

Fashion photography's West-centricity ending?

Eastern photography begins with clothing since it affects the subject's image. China's long fashion history follows. Between 1920 and 1940, "modern girls" appeared. Liangyou, a fashion magazine that grew alongside China's modern girl trend, documented women's basic features. In the 1920s and 1930s, US foreign trade popularised modern women. Modern women are stylish. Powdered face, clever bobbed hair, revealing and slim clothes, long and slender physique, and confident smile. The newspaper encourages contemporary women to wear Western clothes to "Modernise" themselves, regardless of size, age, or financial level. The magazine advises women of all ages on fashion and beauty. Antonia Finnane, University of Melbourne history professor, wrote in Changing Chinese clothes: Fashion, History and Nation that women's clothes signified modernity. China's 1930s dress signified modernity. According to Liangyou, Chinese fashionistas mimicked Western dress in the late 1920s. China adopted Western churches and girls' schools after the Opium War. This educated and empowered Chinese women. After the May Fourth Movement, female education symbolised "breaking with the traditional feudalism and pushing towards a brighter future." Modernity became Chinese female students. "Liangyou," which promotes women's self-esteem and academic performance, progressively included their photos.

Liangyou's manga about modern women's lives reflects her powerful self-reflection on this cultural issue. Cartoonists portray modern women as irresponsible, lustful, dangerous, and lascivious shoppers. They represent materialism, modernism, and feminine subjectivity. They're modern. Modern women's sexuality, marriage, commercial culture, and interactions with males dominate Liangyou cartoons. Men voiced reservations about women's independence and modern gender relations. In the 1920s and 1930s, the modern girl inspired Chinese women to seek modern life and relieved public uneasiness about traditional and modern, Eastern and Western ideas.

 Chinese design has always featured "implicit beauty," flatness, and spiritual harmony. Three elements form one Chinese character, "HE." Modern Chinese fashion. Harmonious, calm, subtle but evocative, reserved, natural, and pure are examples. "HE" suggests China create a hidden beauty system. (Tsui, 2019) The New China revolution transformed Chinese society, including attire. The cheongsam became bourgeois as women's clothing became more refined. Zhongshan and Lenin suits replaced cheongsams for over twenty years. The 1950s celebrated minimalism and labour. Young women enjoyed men's plaid shirts and work trousers. Youth sought military uniforms during the Cultural Revolution. Teens donned straw green uniforms with military hats and schoolbags. This legendary antique clothing was magnificent. The look was labour and austerity. Some people drenched their new garments to symbolise their hard life, while others patched their intact clothes. Western culture was opposed during this time. These developments combat cultural invasion in China.

 Western culture dominates the East. People try hair colour, makeup, and plastic surgery to get Western features like big noses and big eyes. Due of the West's dominance and today's emphasis on appearance. Attractiveness today determines a woman's social status due to society's tougher expectations, especially for women. Attractive ladies have several advantages. In eastern fashion pictures, models pose western-style. The photographer can choose oriental models, yet western stereotypes of oriental faces show western superiority. Celebrities symbolise cultural colonialism. Korean pop is global. Korean celebrities copy Western fashion and performance. Globalisation has made Korean pop culture popular abroad. Despite their hair tints and makeup, the singers have plainly Asian features that reflect traditional Asian values and spirituality, which comforts Asian fans. Even if the performers tried to look western. Asianness became central. Hogarth, 2013. Korean pop broke Western views of Asian culture while following global trends. "East is East and West is West (the two will never meet)," a British saying by Radiad Kipling, contradicts it. Eastern culture is ubiquitous, including photography. The West joins the exploration due to its unique attractiveness. Global attention.

Oriental fashion photography

Western Europe's late 14th century fashion photography predates the camera. Fashion superseded conventional dress, and clothing became more socially influential. Clothes become a major method of self-expression in congested metropolitan areas. Fashion democratised aesthetic tastes notwithstanding hierarchy and desire. Trend-setters are always looking for new methods to differentiate themselves apart from imitators. Print photos best capture fashion intoxication's freshness, desire, imagination, and visual allure. Despite being shot later than normal, the camera techniques captured the fast-changing fashion trends. After its invention in 1839, fashion photographs quickly became popular. These images initially targeted fashion designers, corporations, and hand-drawn graphics models. However, halftone printing in the late 19th century allowed economical mass production of photos, which soon appeared in fashion magazines. Late 19th century. Pictures supplanted hand-drawn graphics in most fashion periodicals by the mid-1930s. Shinkle (2017)

 Photos of clothing or accessories, usually to promote fashion. Fashion images. Fashion photography depicts fashion or "fashionable" lifestyles. In the 1920s, fashion photography mostly documented women's clothing and modelled socially acceptable behaviour. Fashion photography modelled proper female behaviour. As civilization progressed, fashion photography's aim and women's portrayal changed. As economy, society, and technology have changed, so has fashion photography and how women are portrayed. Fashion photography became a way for photographers to comment on current events. Fashion photography depicts different attitudes, behaviours, creative ideas, clothes, trends, and societal expectations of women. Fashion photography has become visual.

Commercial photographer Sophie Traynor

Commercial photographer Sophie Traynor. Her fashion, culinary, and beauty photography brings her throughout the world from Liverpool. Adidas, Collection, Primark, and others are her clientele. After graduating, many photography students specialise, but she chose commercial photography since she gets bored. She like working in waves and was busy for a year.  

In this case study, she recounts her journey from university graduation (2013) to 2020, detailing how she became a commercial photographer.

Her address included several friends. These friends assisted her throughout her career and shaped her. She has met helpful people at each stage, proving that a commercial photographer needs connections and a solid team. She can also shoot and edit images. Strong PR and sales promotion skills, along with assistance from the photographic team, are essential. Business cards and Instagram can advertise the business. Post more work to gain publicity and clientele.

Later, she discusses how money kills many photographers and brands. Many photographers think their work is worth it, but the brand won't pay them and they don't work together. However, Sophie Traynor believes that lowering the pay tier can help her win the job because it gives people a chance to see her photography. Her friend said that even though the brand doesn't have money, as an unknown photographer they don't have clients either, so why not keep it cheap to get the work and gain more out of it.

She also discussed how to keep friends satisfied with pricing. When you shoot something for a friend, they often bail when you propose payment. The layman thinks the photographer owns the camera, so why should they pay for it? In her discussion, she explained that a photographer requires a camera for her job, but someone coming to a photographer for a picture shoot cannot because the photographer already has it. She believes that if one shoots a project at low cost, one will get more than if one talks about it and at high expense. Because photographers shouldn't value dollars at the start. Even if a photographer has a first-class degree, without a business investment, they will fail.

Next, she describes how she gets concerned when approaching new clients and then doubts herself when she sees less skilled people doing better. She should be blindly confident and not think about anything to overcome imposter syndrome. But not in other people or times. She believes that humility is key to success, hence she is never overconfident. She often succeeds by being humble, thankful, and kind to clients.

Sophie Traynor discusses the three things that have shaped her as a commercial photographer. She is an independent commercial photographer with a studio, team, and regular clients.

Commercial photography is advertising. Commercial photographers must photograph objects and subjects for many objectives. Commercial photographers follow branding and shot lists. The client usually decides artistic matters. Commercial photographers must capture client needs and thoughts in their photos. 202/MasterClass crew Sophie Traynor thinks this demands a humble approach to all clients to find out what they want to achieve to create a client-satisfying shot.

Commercial photographers need portfolios. Commercial photographers must create a portfolio of their best work. Always include your greatest work in a photography portfolio to attract clients. After finishing your portfolio, get photography business cards to give to potential clients. (MasterClass 2020) To get found and gain clients, you need publicity.

Sophie Traynor's blog discusses three key points: commercial photographers require relationships and a solid team. This helps her run herself, advertise her professionalism, and attract clients. Second, she thinks photographers shouldn't worry too much about money because they often get recognition, which is more valuable than money. Third, she discussed how to combat imposter syndrome while working with new clients. She advised against 'blind confidence' because it doesn't work for everyone. She wanted to stress that being humble, thankful, and polite with clients is extremely essential. These ideas inspired her creativity and career.

Portraits Shoot

Some time ago, I followed photographer Han Yang to learn about the methods and techniques of portrait photography. During the learning process, she showed me about the use of camera functions, the correct composition when taking portraits, how to expose properly and other techniques. I also learned how to use lighting in the studio to achieve the lighting effect I wanted, and how to use flash and reflector to fill light on people's faces when shooting outdoors. It was a new experiment for me, before that I was shooting out of hobby, and the photos I took were not as good as I expected, especially when I got interested in fashion photography, I found that all these contents she gave me were very necessary and I benefited a lot. Another interesting thing that happened during the learning process was that Han Yang told me that I needed to practice more in order to take better photos. She told me I could go to the streets of England and ask passersby if they could be my subjects. But I'm a very introverted person and I'm very afraid of interacting with strangers, especially when it comes to offending people like this. When I was at a loss, I saw someone's post on a Chinese social media app asking for a photo shoot. I realized that I could post on social media that I was willing to take pictures for free and that the pictures would only be used as homework and would not be uploaded elsewhere. So I posted this message and soon received many replies saying they could help me with my assignment. I was very happy because in this way, I photographed about 30 people, met many new friends, my ability to communicate with people was enhanced, and my portrait shooting skills were greatly improved, which helped me a lot in my fashion photography later.

Followed photographer Han Yang to the set of her fashion photography creation shoot

Followed photographer Yang Han to the set of her fashion photography creation shoot. It was a two-day shoot to shoot different subjects and work with different people, in which I learned a lot and was exposed to many areas and contents that I had never known before. Yang Han told me that the shoot was a purely creative one for the love of it, and that everyone volunteered to help out. First she would post her idea for the shoot on her personal platform and recruit participants, including models, stylists, makeup artists, hair stylists, costumers, lighting assistants and so on. Then after receiving the response, she gives her moodboard to let everyone know the idea of the content to be shot, so as to facilitate all the participants to work with the photographer. The next step is to finalize the shooting time with everyone, contact the studio to confirm the location, to confirm whether the studio has all the equipment needed to shoot, if not, you also need to rent equipment. Before the start of the shoot to set up in advance, and the assistant to debug the lighting, and remind the assistant to order food in advance for the noon break.

During the shoot I think the most important thing I need to learn is her ability to control the whole scene. Because the photographer needs to communicate and negotiate with all the people involved in the project, which is a very difficult thing. Because not everyone can understand what the photographer wants in the first place, and some of the people involved will be very individualistic and not very cooperative with the photographer, so the photographer needs to have strong communication and leadership skills. Another thing that I think I benefited from is that I followed her on set as a lighting assistant to help change the lighting. This is my first time to participate in the actual shooting after learning so much about the use and operation of photography lighting, and I think this is a great help to consolidate my knowledge. And I found that the actual operation of lighting is quite complicated, because it is the first time I participated, I am not very skilled yet, I still need to work harder, and I can participate more in such shooting to improve my proficiency.

About the well-known piece "Rhine 2."

Gursky's 1999 photograph Rhine 2 shows a path with no contours, a meadow, a river, and a grey sky that almost perfectly form a horizontal framework. Gursky also destroyed a factory on the other side of the river digitally.

The 1,320-kilometer-long Rhine River flows from Switzerland's Alps to the Netherlands, where it eventually empties into the North Sea. Its basin measures 185,000 square kilometres. The Rhine Valley experienced the second industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century, which was driven by Germany. The cities flourished quickly, and the textile industry increased quickly as well. This "father river" was being pushed beyond the point of no return by people driven by desire. The Rhine was still becoming more and more polluted as the 20th century came to a close. There were several industrial areas along the Rhine, especially the Ruhr industrial area in Germany, and several energy, chemical, and smelting businesses used the river for industrial water while also dumping a lot of wastewater into it. The water quality of the Rhine has dramatically declined as a result of the presence of more than 60,000 dangerous pollutants, including heavy metal compounds, pesticides, hydrocarbons, and organic chlorides. Ecosystem damage along the Rhine was at an all-time high, and the number of biological species was rapidly disappearing. The Rhine was designated as the "sewer of Europe" and was deemed "dead" by biology. The biggest river management action plan in European environmental history was started as a result of this. Today's Rhine, which began in the Swiss Alps, flows through Basel's chemical towers, through the steel furnaces of Germany's Ruhr industrial region, and ultimately winds its way into the sea between Rotterdam, the Netherlands' enormous oil tank formations. It is astounding that, after nine nations, the river is still as pure as ever. The Rhine is now one of the world's most successful rivers in terms of the interaction between people and rivers after more than 40 years of rehabilitation.

Gursky wished to return the Rhine to its pre-pollution state, when there was no sign of habitation along its banks.