the-view-finder-exhibition

The Viewfinder

The concept of The Viewfinder came from Margaret Ann Croft, a tenant featured in Ken Russell’s documentary film A House in Bayswater (1960). A retired personal maid working in America for many years, Miss Croft—as she is referred to—is filmed reminiscing on her travels with the help of a viewfinder. Describing this she says: “If I’m feeling rather tired and don’t feel I want to go out, I can sit in my armchair by the window and see the world through my film view camera. I feel I am almost back in America, it’s so real”. The viewfinder serves as a tool that transports viewers into the past—whether into their own memories or those of a complete stranger—positioning viewers in the place of the photographer behind the camera. Comparably, by wearing second hand clothes, passed down or purchased, we are afforded a similar closeness to the past and the people who wore them before us, however in many cased their stories remain unknown. As Elizabeth Wilson wrote in Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity (2003): “clothes are so much part of our living moving selves that, frozen on display in the mausoleums of culture, they hint at something only half understood” (p. 1). Acknowledging our fragmented understanding, this exhibit aims to bridge the gap between the static ‘mausoleum-like’ display of garments and the lived experiences they embody. With the aim of addressing this divide, I have created a series of silhouettes which can be placed on top of and moved around the vitrine, creating a ‘viewfinder’ through which to view the display. Cut into the silhouettes of peope asscoaitaed with these second hand clothes—both past and present, some known, others imagined—I encourage you to look past the garments’ materiality and visualise the lives of the people who once owned them and the memories that they hold.

Location: London College of Fashion (19th March - 16th April 2025)

ATEN Magazine was produced as part of a group project inspired by Jenna Rossi-Camus’ Egyptomania fashion collection. Using the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten as the starting point for our research, this cult ‘special edition’ explores the history around the cult of Aten in conjunction with the history of Egyptomania and its place within fashion today. Lorem Ipsum

The Process

The Silhouettes

Install

Back to Research