Bubblegum Club

Tag: Gemma Shepherd

  • HER // a project portraying Coloured women in an honest and vulnerable way

    HER // a project portraying Coloured women in an honest and vulnerable way

    Coloured identity has a complicated national, provincial and personal history (or histories) in South Africa. Mikhailia Petersen and Gemma Shepherd teamed up with Jabu Newman, Jahaan van der Ross, Qiniso van Damme, Roxanne Louw, Lara Simons and Shannon van Wyk to unpack this by focusing specifically on the representation of Coloured women in the project ‘HER’.

    Mikhailia explained that the title choice for the series came instinctively. “We want it be a series that a magnitude of Coloured women can connect to,” she adds.

    The foundation for the project comes from their emphasis on the importance of Coloured women occupying positions where they are able to define and perpetuate their own narratives and tell authentic, honest stories about their lived experiences. “Coloured women need not only the validation of seeing ourselves reflected in the physical form, we also need our lived experience to be acknowledged and reflected in the stories that the Fashion Industry tells. Only then will we truly have a seat at the table.” By including women who are involved in the creative industry, both behind and in front of the camera, this project implicitly invites multiple players to reflect on their message.

    The team hope that the series will encourage further discussions about telling experience-oriented, first person stories, as well as widen an interrogation of the fashion industry and engender a spirit of togetherness.

    ‘Her’ aims to portray Coloured women in an honest and vulnerable way. This is in contrast to the played out, hardened stereotype that is often placed on Coloured women. The stereotype that villainizes our grit and calls it vulgarity, because it makes us easier to discount.

    The above is a quote from the text by Shannon van Wyk that accompanies the series of photographs. This text gives the viewer context, and avoids it being interpreted as a fashion editorial. It communicates the fact that there are many ways in which people understand their Coloured identity, and that the ownership and reflexive unpacking of this identification needs to be in the hands of those who embody it. It also rejects the caricatures and negative associations that Coloured people have been forced to carry, specifically Coloured women.

     

    The images present the duality of strength and vulnerability with the intention of broadening the narratives of Coloured woman.

    “We understand that this is just a beginning and that there are so many more stories and voices that Coloured Women identify with that deserve a platform. Stories that need to be made and heard because they validate Coloured identity and the multitude of trials that Coloured women have had to go through and continue to triumph over.”

    Credits:

    Concept: Mikhailia Petersen and Gemma Shepherd

    Producer & Stylist: Mikhailia Petersen

    Photographer: Gemma Shepherd

    Models: Jabu Newman, Jahaan van der Ross, Qiniso van Damme, Roxanne Louw and Lara Simons

    Copy: Shannon van Wyk

  • Gemma Shepherd – A Daring Fashion Lens Evoking A Sense Of Familiarity

    Gemma Shepherd – A Daring Fashion Lens Evoking A Sense Of Familiarity

    Gemma Shepherd describes herself as a twenty something year old photographer and creative from Cape Town. She is a graduate from UCT with a keen focus on fashion that takes on a narrative form on her blog, The Urban Gem.

    At present, she is learning how to express herself through a variety of art forms. She has relatively widespread creative interests that can be pinned down as fashion, makeup artistry, photography and writing. It is understandable that the twenty something year old would need a variety of outlets to quench her thirst for creative execution.

    Her photographic practice has received increasing acknowledgement as she keeps on pushing her work to further leaps and bounds. Gemma hopes that her risky behaviour and go-getter attitude will motivate and enable other creatives to risk the unknown. “It’s very seldom that I feel truly satisfied with something I produce…[but] to look back at the work I started out producing and to see that improvement, it’s encouraging,” she tells fellow blogger Rebecca Arendse in an interview earlier this year.

    Her exploration into the world of still image creation happened instinctively after she was presented with a disposable camera as a child. From there her passion for the medium grew and later evolved into combining the elements that she cares about most – fashion and portraiture. Attaining an internship at Cosmopolitan Magazine after her graduation from UCT gave her the opportunity to obtain a better understanding of the behind-the-scenes of fashion content creation. After viewing the Vogue exhibition in Madrid she came to the realization that she had what it takes to be the fashion photographer. Today Gemma’s portfolio features an editorial on Tony Gum for Roundtable, a shoot titled ‘Girls will be Girls’ recently published on A Fashion Friend, the AW17 lookbook for LAZULI as well as work produced for IMUTE Magazine.

    Her photographic narrative is held together with defining elements in her work such as the use of tight cropping, slightly saturated imagery with soft shadows, black and white images that evoke chic and a droopy romantic impression, use of photomontage and an intimacy that is her own. Gemma’s use of atypical cropping brings her viewers closer to her models, closer than a viewer gets to see a stranger in real life, adding a sense of familiarity and intimacy to her portraiture. This has to be Gemma’s most intriguing dare devil move. Defying what is considered to be acceptable framing, and her move is a welcome one.

              

    Gemma’s fervour to learn, grow and inspire translates in her imagery and documented word. Her photographic work speaks of an innate understanding of style and popular culture. Gemma is well on her way to defining a cemented means of articulating self-expression in various forms of art production. Her lens has the ability to emphasize what is natural and add a romantic overtone to her work which seduces your eyes.