On Wednesday 2nd November, photography students of the Sydney Russell School took part in ‘The Vulgar’ art exhibition at The Barbican. Students were previously asked to think of a theme for their personal photo shoots circulating the idea of the city. We would then find out that the photos we would eventually take will feature in one of their magazines.

We were greeted with the warm smell of coffee when we entered the building through the front entrance. We were then kindly escorted into the fountain room for an orientation session. As usual, we were warned of the potential hazards and rules of the building. This session was quite an eye opener; “What does Vulgar mean?” This question would be a constant reminder of everything we were due to do. We were asked and told about what we think about someone’s first impressions based on what they wore. Even for someone who wasn’t that interested in fashion, the afternoon was quite successful in grabbing their audience’s attention.

We were kindly told about the art exhibition’s zero tolerance to photography followed by a quick overview of the place the event was taking happening. The first dresses we saw were associated with the Greek Culture. We were given sketchbooks to draw and write anything that stood out to us, and I can safely say that I wanted to draw and write down absolutely everything. We had half an hour to keep in mind the question that was asked at the beginning. “What does Vulgar mean?” Surprisingly, the time given was not even close to enough time to see absolutely everything. After the informative viewing of clothes, we made our way back to the fountain room where we had to discuss what wonderful garments we saw. The room had a bit of an intimidating atmosphere when we arrived again but that wasn’t for long.

We were then given a task that seemed dreadful at the time but we would get used to it. The Barbican is 1.722 million sq feet and we had to make our way around it to find people with interesting fashion sense, who were complete strangers, might I add. We needed to get to know them and ask “what does fashion mean to you?” We were given no help whatsoever on the questions were supposed to ask and this was an awakening into the real world where we had to judge a person based on their looks. However, as controversial as that sounds, I quite enjoyed talking to different people and getting to know ‘the real’ them. Another half an hour was passed and once again, we had to make our way to the ‘fountain room’ for a professional viewing of the wonderful pictures we took. One of the Barbican’s very own photographer Laura had the chance to be a critic to our very amateur work. This taught us how to take criticism and improve our work.

Eventually, we had to say goodbye to the warm smell of coffee and make our way back to the crowded train station. On our way out we were told that this wasn’t the end of seeing our instructors (Chris and Laura), but in fact they would come back to our school for a visit and view the rest of the pictures that we would eventually take for the rest of the project. Since we enjoyed the Barbican so much, we now have a project to last us the duration of the weeks until their next visit.

Written By Jahnavi S.