PG Tips Podcast Series, Ep3 with Suzannah Olanrewaju-Gabriel, MA Fashion Photography at LCF
- Written byPost-Grad Community
- Published date 03 August 2021
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Podcast Host Yulin Huang, UAL Post-Grad Community Ambassador, studying MA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins
In the third episode of PG Tips I welcomed Suzannah Olanrewaju-Gabriel (MA Fashion Photography, London College of Fashion) to share her recent projects that explore the nuances between body image, social media, and femininity, as well as working with a diverse group of women creatives.
Suzannah Olanrewaju-Gabriel, MA Fashion Photography, London College of Fashion
Suzannah is currently on the MA Fashion Photography course at London College of Fashion. Suzannah is a diverse mixed-media portrait, concept, and fashion practitioner whose work focuses on femininity, social media, and body image. Suzannah's work has been exhibited online and in magazines such as F Stop Magazine, Kaltblut Magazine and UAL Post-Grad Community's Post-Grad Stories. Suzannah is currently working on her final major project.
We discussed two wonderful projects - read about them below:
1 of 1 was a call-out project and partially auto-ethnographic. Suzannah put a call out on The Dots asking for women creatives without discriminating on a race, age, and disability basis. She accepted all the women who showed interest because she wanted this project to be as diverse as possible. She then conducted interviews with the women and then photographed them. The women styled themselves to portray an everyday, realistic view of themselves. The final images were unretouched and have been featured in Kaltblut Magazine and UAL Post-Grad Community.
It was very heartwarming to hear about the genuine connections built from this project - I was particularly curious to know why photography is her medium of choice. I quickly realised that it wasn’t just the snapping of the photographs that makes the work so empowering - it was everything that led up to it - the interviews and intimate discussions about body image, self doubts around each of their skill sets as creatives infuses the final photograph with the empathic tinge Suzannah experienced with all of them.
I thought it was incredible that this conversation about doubting your own abilities as a creative person is able come to the surface through such a hands-on approach - by sewing directly onto the paper. It is not an easy or quick process either, much like many of these self-discoveries and journeys into self-love.
There was also discussion of Suzannah’s own self-doubt when she first came onto the Fashion Photography course - as the experimentation of sewing onto photographs and collaging seemed to lean more ‘artistic’ than the ‘high fashion’ you see in certain magazines. However, she kept doing what she loved, and eventually found the right audience for the beautiful set of works (evidently, as they were published in art publications). This was very inspiring to hear and serves a good reminder to believe in your own abilities, but also to know when things aren’t going right, as Suzannah mentioned.
She is very grateful that these women enlisted her this sense of trust in sharing such intimate discussions.
“I always try to work with women especially because I just love to empower them…there’s definitely that energy [with working with women] that I just love and always welcome,” - Suzannah.
You can read about the 1 of 1 project in more detail in this article.
Fragmented is the first body of work where Suzannah incorporates embroidery directly onto her photography. Fragmented investigated the interplay between social media and self-esteem amongst women. The project focused on the dark sides of this and included suggestive elements such as: self-harm, undergoing surgery to look like your favourite influencer, and the adverse effects envy and unrealistic aspirations have on a woman. Fragmented was included in F Stop Magazine's online group exhibition.
The series showcases the beauty of several contrasting tensions; the fragility of the thread juxtaposed with the violence of repeated piercing through the paper, the vibrant red against the black and white, but it also includes a sense of play of materials in ripping up and piecing back together the certainty of the original image. This set of works target the darker implications of social media and self-esteem amongst women, and it does this in a visually impactful way. Suzannah mentioned that the destruction and salvaging of the image is therapeutic for her - I found this quite beautiful; like how the healing of something might be a slow process, but at the end, despite the visible, threaded scars, you’ve ended up with something whole again.
Suzannah has also offered a lot of helpful advice and encouragement for fellow creatives towards the end of the episode, so make sure to tune into that! I certainly found it very inspiring.
For anyone who is interested in connecting with Suzannah, you can reach her on Instagram.
If you are interested in being a guest on the podcast, please message Yulin on Instagram or email PGCommunity@arts.ac.uk. Hope to see you there!
Related links
Post-Grad Community Podcast: PG Tips
The PG Tips podcast is an open and safe space for people to come on and have a chat about their current work and research interests (and possibly offer some Tips/ advice for the rest of us), forming a fun audio space to listen to. This has been a difficult year for us, but don’t forget that we do have a huge community here at the university. You are not alone - I hope this space will help alleviate some anxieties that come from a still developing practice and possibly spark some inspiration in hearing about other peoples’ research as well.
This series is also for those who are studying with us overseas who might not be able to be on campus right now and are finding it difficult to make new connections.
Get in touch with Post-Grad Community at PGCommunity@arts.ac.uk
UAL Post-Grad Community
Established in 2013, Post-Grad Community is an inclusive platform for all UAL postgraduate students to share work, find opportunities and connect with other creatives within the UAL and beyond. Find out more
Post-Grad Stories
A thriving online magazine of our postgraduate student voices sharing thought-provoking experiences, practices, thoughts and articles about what matters to them.
Download the PDF Guide to writing articles for Post-Grad Stories
Want to write an article? Get in touch with the Post-Grad Community team PGCommunity@arts.ac.uk