Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes

Today, after a very interesting lecture with Clare Rose on Orientalism, we went to the V & A to see the new exhibit on the Russian ballet. I was surprised at how big the collection of objects the museum has managed to collect- knowing that costumes, drawings and other amazing information was auctioned all over the world. Throughout the whole exhibit the thing that really kept me occupied was listening to the background music, the amazing classical pieces which really made the costumes on display come alive and you could really imagine the dancers on the stage performing. It was interesting to see how differentcultures were depicted, with the orientals made out to be promiscuous and overtly sexual wearing very revealing dresses and the Russian peasant costumes made of bright silks, which although beautiful would be nothing like reality.There was one Léon Bakst dress which I particularly liked, a pink bodice with a flapper style skirt, which although was designed years ago in Russia for the character of an oriental dancing girl, captures what came to be a very popular European style of dress. If you haven't seen the exhibition I highly recommend it but keep a bottle of water in your bag- you might be in there a while!!

Photography Workshop

Today we had a photography workshop, using the SLR camera's and the equipment which would normally be used on a photo shoot, such as lights, a white backdrop and a tripod. I have never really done much photography so it was really useful to learn how to use a camera properly and control the settings such as aperture and shutter speed. It is quite amazing what you can do with a camera when you take your time and really control the shot, other than just point and shoot. I liked taking pictures of my 3D object by laying my camera on the desk or putting it right against the wall to reveal a much more interesting angle than looking at it front on. Hopefully from now on when i need to photograph a piece of work I will be able to do it professionally to produce interesting images.