“Vitalism is a doctrine that describes living organisms as fundamentally different from non-living entities, because they are governed by different principles.”

I started to think about vitalism and what kind of principles are most commonly applied in peoples lives, which after a bit of thinking and exploring the web, lead me to social acceptance, a key area of study that fits in perfectly with the title of this project. I started to research a bit more into social acceptance within our lives, and why exactly people feel the need for it to exist.

Now, most people thrive social acceptance because they feel left out, or not ‘normal,’ which then can effect their confidence and personality. To become socially acceptable, they then adhere to specific styles of clothing, hair styles, brands and so on, which will then deem them more normal and acceptable in the eyes of the general population. I find this very fascinating and I must admit, it is not a concept that I myself can say I do not participate in. It’s an issue that affects the majority of our society today, and I think the fact that the worth of a human being measured via clothes, style and brand of possessions is ridiculous.

I think the biggest issue within our culture is the social hierarchy that has been established due to fashion and brands, and therefore the unacceptability of clothes, and people who wear said clothes, that do not possess a label or a significant brand. Of course fashion will never die down and people are allowed to have their own individual fashion tastes, however the victimisation of people not adhering to ‘popular’ conventions is unfair and outrageous.

Now after looking into social acceptance and branding I developed my thoughts to focus further on the unacceptability of unbranded items, and the prejudice of individuals based on their fashion style. People are no longer judged via their personality, they are judged based on their clothing choices, which I think is completely dehumanising. The value of a person is decided simply upon whether or not they wear branded items, and therefore I thought this would be a very interesting area to focus my practice in. It is also something that really irritates me, so I think I will enjoy expressing myself in the form of photography.

PREPARING FOR PRODUCTION

As this project doesn’t care about the identity of the subject, I will be using the same person to feature in all of my photographs, and he will be male as I feel that not only do more men wear (visibly) branded items, but due to me owning some of the clothes I would like to feature, it will be much more convenient. I intend to use a dull backdrop, either a grey or black, as I feel this suits the mood of the images – I think brighter colours would give off the wrong vibe. I will experiment in the studio, however as the images have to be in a triptych format, I would prefer if all the backgrounds were the same colour, or if only the middle image’s background was different to the two side images, that way it would be symmetrical and more aesthetic in my opinion.

After the previous project, I have had a much better experience with the lights, so I expect my photographs to be correctly and professionally lit. Below I have listed the images I intend to get, in order of left to right, to give a better picture of how I want my triptych to look. ALL images will start just above the waist to include maximum amount of the brand.

1. Adidas
Subject will be wearing white Adidas t-shirt
A printed Adidas logo will be stuck to the subject’s head, hiding their identity
Subject will wear Adidas boots on hands, for further branding
Backdrop will be black, allowing contrast

2. Fred Perry
Subject will be wearing black Fred Perry t-shirt
A printed Fred Perry logo will be stuck to the subject’s head
Backdrop will be grey, allowing the t-shirt to be visible

3. Apple
Subject will be holding Apple MacBook and iPhone (Plus other accessories if possible (iPad, iPod))
Subject will be wearing a white t-shirt, with the Apple logo stuck onto it
A printed Apple logo will be stuck to the subject’s head
Backdrop will be black

FINAL IMAGES

I really enjoyed producing these images, I had a lot of fun with the flashes and lighting in the studio, and a lot more success than I have before. I can definitely feel an improvement in the quality of my images, and hopefully this is reflected within my grades. Below I have separated each individual image, followed by all three collated in a triptych.