Along with all things sweet, spending time each day pouring over fashion blogs - a new-found wealth of imagery, has become a new found love, some might similarly call an addiction - although would have to admit (depending upon my chocolate consumption) - both are harmless variations.
The impetus appears to be strong. There are so many amazing photographic projects undertaken by creative individuals - who post, sometimes as frequently as daily, results of their street fashion scouting online. I am struck by the diversity of approaches to the internet as an expressive medium for exhibiting the fashions of particular stylish people - resulting in blogs like Facehunter, HelLooks, Satorialist, becoming distinct social media objects - individuated from one another, each blog having its own identity.
This is apparent in not only the "kinds" of individuals that are chosen to be photographed (presumably, unless there is a call for people to send own photographs in, the blogger's attention will be captured by not everything, but a certain something), but also in the very way in which the blog is "present" within the diverse actual-virtual ecology that is the internet. The blogger must make particular editing decisions - actively controlling the expressive elements on the site, for instance how a user navigates, the layout, relationship between text and images, and associations/community listed in a sidebar.
Following Gell, who examines the social context as art - the production, circulation, and reception, rather evaluating art upon whether it is of aesthetic value or some other merit - like innovation or originality, an examination of the social context of fashion blogs is an appropriate way to examine these blogs as art. While there are evaluations of blogs upon the basis of aesthetics or sophistication, (this site here is an example, although I must say I appreciate their focus on independently produced blogs), it is perhaps more interesting or suitable to examine the ways in which certain social processes have brought about the production and circulation of fashion blogs, and would better explain why the internet has been used for this type of social and creative activity.
I have noticed fashion bloggers are commonly preoccupied with exhibiting the images they collect from a particular city, usually the one they live in. However Facehunter is seen to travel across the Continent and to North America even, collecting images for his now, extremely well-known, blog. Perhaps fashion blogs are a new way to "image" the city or a new form of urban art?
Examining the social context as art, allows us to evaluate why street fashion blogging and photo sharing between geographically distant cities has become so popular in the last few years, and enables an appreciation of the diverse creativity and expressivity found online.
The above images are some of my favourites all taken from Facehunter archives.
