Just another Alice. Just another wonderland

 Just Another Alice. Just Another Wonderland.

If I could only choose one picture that I felt had the most meaning and memories, it would be one out of this reel. A short college project consisting of the woods, a dinning table, two packs of playing cards, a giant rabbit head and a lot of cakes. From these some what obvious clues the name Alice should come straight into your head and if not then I may as well say “off with your head!”..still nothing? Forget it.

Back to the project. I remember showing these images to my photography tutor wanting his thoughts on a photo shoot which neither him nor my university course had anything to do with. All he did was smile, look at me and say “ this is a recurring theme with so many students”. So true, the whole Alice in wonderland saga is a common theme with many using it a there main element for a design project with black and red colour tones and elaborate costumes in the form of the characters from the book. I have seen so many aspects of it, some good, some not so much but these images you see here mean so much more to me on a personal level.

There are a whole list of reasons why. However I think the main one would be the fact I worked along side the five people who I probably spent 90% of the past year with. Other than that it just gradually took off from a simple idea to an amazing layout with even better locations and costumes.

You may look at them and just think there good pictures or worse you may hate them altogether, but there will always be that one selective piece from your own personal archive of work that you hold onto and feel again that moment of extreme self praise.

                                                            
         (Major credit goes out to Shelby Monaghan, William Rutherford, Amy Foulkes, Mark Ryan and Harrison Edwards 
Best year so far guys).　

Armour

Armour

 Armour is clothing adapted for war for protection in battle. It can be seen quite metaphorically in our urban cultures even though it dates way back to the Middle Ages. Putting up your hood on, say, a black Nike hooded jacket is, in my opinion, the modern-day adaptation of a Roman soldier putting on his steel helmet. However, we are not protecting ourselves from deadly sword strikes, but rather more deadly comments. People around you can magnify something so small as a bold colour on a t-shirt by using it as a negative thing. They may like the scrutiny, don’t agree with what you look like and/or enjoy the power of being a bully.

We shop for many reasons, e.g. style, warmth, elegance, but do we ever think about safety when we shop? And what are the perceptions of others when they see what we choose to wear? Are we walking around with targets on our backs, ready to be verbally shot at? Many of us have experienced feelings of intimidation when walking past a group of youths on a street corner or sitting in front them on a bus or train, blind from what’s going on behind us. But if you dress similarly, is that a way of fitting into a location, being a chameleon and not allowing yourself to be singled out? Should the common quote be changed to - If you can’t beat them, be them? These feelings have come from a combination of past experiences and negative press in the media, during a time where mostly young teens are portrayed as hang around in gangs, giving unwanted abuse. I can remember quite well the days where I would go to the hairdressers and get a skinhead hairstyle just for the fact that I was visiting my cousins who lives in Croxteth, a well-known area of Liverpool for crime and young gang rivalry, where self proclaimed areas are defended with guns and knives. Images like these were reinforced in my head from family and again the media. Of course you would be nervous if you looked different. Spiky gelled hair, or coloured highlights, could easily turn into a visit to the hospital, where you have been beaten black and blue. A little ‘OTT’ you may think but the phrase “better safe than sorry” always came to mind with enforces on the safe part.

If we think back to our high school days we felt forced against our will to wear drab, over sized blazers and boring patterned ties with no personality or design. Teachers gave us reasons like - to uphold the reputation of the school or so they knew who was really meant to be on the grounds. Some of this maybe part of it all but rules like school uniforms are set in stone for protection of students from getting singled out by their peers. If children can’t afford the lasted sportswear, if they have to wear something two days on the run, this may result in giving their fellow pupils the chance for pre-adult fashion harassment for their own evil amusement. Look at own clothes day, the day which most of us got existed for, may not have been so special for others. It’s easier to be spotted if you’re wearing something that you wish to, rather than what everyone else is. It’s like a where’s wally effect. It’s harder to find someone if everyone around you is wearing the same outfit.

The same can be said for the music we choose to scroll down to on our iPods. Something which you think is private to you, something only you can hear, could be giving off a non-visual message and again, creating an opening to be targeted. For example, listening to the likes of ABBA, which is classic and well-known throughout the world, gives off different opinions to different listeners. It could no way compare to something in the charts with a loud dub step vibe. So because you chose to press down on that particular old, personal hit, you may be looked at for a split second longer to have something said to you, purely for embarrassment. Would you change something over on your music player just for the fact that someone or to be more specific, a gang of hooded teens were walking past you on the street, or sat behind you on the bus?

Our current Prime Minister, David Cameron, seems to think along the same terms as myself, giving a speech in 2006 saying, “Hoodies are more defensive than offensive. They’re a way to stay invisible in the street. In a dangerous environment the best thing to do is keep your head down, blend in.” I agree with him in terms of keeping your head down, but I can’t help but think that his plan of action, to, I quote ,“hug a hoodie” is a somewhat naive approach of communication with them. Would you go up to a gang a ‘chavs’, giving you abuse and give them a hug ?!. The conclusion of it all may sound like am being somewhat judgemental by giving off the impression that every person in a hood will harm you in some way. Of course am not. However when thinking about people like this walking down the street, my guard will always be up and my mind automatically triggers into safety mode. This is my way of thinking, an urban jungle without a dart gun or hidden traps for the wild animals out there, just my headphones and a hood with the head down for protection.

(photos shoot and styled by me)

Spot the Difference ?

Spot

the

Difference ?

The other day was my brother’s birthday. This meant taking a short journey back to my parents home to celebrate his 17th, give him his gift and in the end staying over for the night. The small family party was over and I felt it was time to call it a night. In bed half awake I began looking around my teenage bedroom at a view which I had seen a hundred times before and stared out of a window at the road I grew up in. This got me all reminiscent and in a spare of the moment act, I decided to pull out my old school leaving books, books in which my high school friends wrote heartfelt messages of departure, thinking back on not so long ago moments I’d forgotten. I searched where I thought they belonged but no sight. I looked around determined to find them but nothing. All there was where fashion illustration book and designers biographies. It was too late to ask if my parents had moved them, so thinking nothing of it I went back to bed and tried again to sleep.

 In bed I took a harder look and realized a great deal had been removed without me even caring. With my mind still in a reminiscent state and the fact I was back in my teenage bedroom, in my teenage bed, triggered my teenage dramas into flooding back. Turning on my side I began thinking about ex loves and fall out friendships, which I thought at 16 where the hardest times with the weight of the world on my shoulders. Guess the weight wasn’t so heavy after all because  like my leaving books, I realized how they disappeared without even noticing. Seems a little disillusioned now. I mean how many times have we aided a distressed friend over  a bad break-up but reacted in the same manner when confronting the situation ourselves? Now we can laugh at such times but truthfully we could never fully forget because its what makes us who we are today.

 I would say I’ve  fell in love with three people in my short teen/adult life and I use the word ‘fell’ rather than been because I’ve only been with one. Plus now am older there’s a slight hazy confusion in my mind whether am even ‘aloud’ to count it as love without beginning officially with them. Did I only use the ’L’ word because at the time its all I knew or was it the really thing? My mind began to be burdened with the memories starring the other two. How I’d stare out the same window as before, for their car to pull up to take me anywhere. The ways I planned how our lives would be, how it was fate that what I planned would  happen. Future lives created with a naive approach. All these emotions of teen immaturity mix with the now, played around in my head asking the question, do are surrounding shape our feelings? Currently with what I class as the love of my life and living in what use to be a new place. I feel I got a unneeded new start which has structured my current life, resulting in new memories over taking past feelings. I can recall the strange time when I was calling my new flat, home and my childhood home, my parents house. From then on it became a natural development of using my new address when home shopping and filling out forms.

I thought about how once important things like gameboys and colouring books had been replaced, upgraded if you will to laptops and fashion magazine which now seem like life essentials. Items to go forward in life. Far more useful than a game console which gave me so much joy as a kid. Now I feel a slight guilt when having a rare moment to play my x-box360 having a voice at the back of my mind saying - “isn’t there some ‘fashion related’ way to using this time better”? Is that the adult thing to do, gain more knowledge? We have grew up saddle without realising. At a young age we expected to wake up on our 18th birthday, look in the mirror and see a completely changed person both in brains and facially instead of a natural progression of maturity. Can you remember the time when all we wanted to do was be older, work, earn money, drink and dress the way we wanted. Is it now the totally opposite? Do we wish for the time where we can just get up to watch S.M.T.V live or being able to name all 150 ‘original’ pokemon was a necessity in life, instead of thinking about what bank loan has the best APR to help with your current money troubles? And if your reading this not  knowing what S.M.T.V live means or why I’ve emphasised the word original, then it proves that times, as well as joys do changed.

I can image someone reading this thinking I don’t know what the hell am talking about. Am only 21 and haven’t even lived my life. True, I have so much more to come but am socially classed as an adult and apart from child and teenager, there isn’t another stage in life. There not even a once wished ’pre’ reference like pre-adult. There’s no such thing as pre-elderly thank god. So how has the past of are youth shaped out the future and what will end up missing out of our thought to be frozen bedrooms