For those who don't know I currently study Photography at Edinburgh Napier University, which is incredible! And for my final year project, I am working with young people from the Highlands to create fashion editorial images.
The idea behind my project is to showcase and highlight the experiences of young people living and growing up in the Highlands. And to do this I am using fashion photography. My project therefore combines and blurs the lines between documentary work and fashion, which is handy as that is my dissertation topic. ᵕ̈
My parents live in the Highlands, my dad grew up there, and so did his mum and her parents before that. So for me, the Highlands are very much home. I'm always guaranteed to meet at least three people I know just walking to the shops! Growing up in the Highlands, I'm only now just realising this after living in a city for four years, is so drastically different in so many ways. I enjoyed it for the most part but spent 80% of my time trying to find ways out. Which isn't the goal for everyone there obviously but I wanted out! So when it came to making work for university I found it odd that the work I enjoyed the most and felt the most rewarding to make were projects about home. This project is no different. Well in fact slightly different because I have never felt so excited and grateful for a project as I have this one.
I was asked in a lecture yesterday what I want this project to achieve. And apart from the obvious becoming world known and making us all famous I was unsure how to explain it. But I'm going to give it my best shot!
I want to capture the experiences, that the young girls I'm currently working with for this project, have living and growing up where they do. Not to shout about how we are often overlooked or not heard or be negative about it, don't get me started on the shipping times though! But to just showcase them and to say 'Look at us, look at the cool sh*t we can and do in the Highlands' especially when it comes to creative things. I worked so hard to get to where I am in terms of studying photography. If I had just been three years older I never would have been able to take higher photography as a subject and find out I love it because it wouldn’t have been available to me. We didn't have the resources and equipment, despite other schools having them. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do what I am now, which I think is so unfair.
This is why alongside this project I'm putting on fashion and photography workshops for the youth club I'm working with. Because if I can give the children who live and grow up there now opportunities I never had i think that's the best thing ever! I want to make people aware of the amazing things that happen in the Highlands and showcase the experiences to hopefully make people consider us more! Again especially creatively! I know I can't change the world, but Scotland I think is a good start! ᵕ̈
Follow along for updates about this project, I will try to do as many as possible!
Lily Skye x
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