The Broken Mirror Concept

One idea that I really liked after looking into reflective imagery was using a broken mirror element in my imagery as a metaphor for Gen Z being considered a broken generation. As seen in my research file, societal and economic pressures can often create a struggle for our generation. During my research into different photographers and magazines, I recognised a theme of mirrors and self reflection, I found myself more drawn to this style of photography, especially when referencing Generation Z. The two main styles of photography that have inspired me are conceptual and fashion editorial. For my final imagery, I want to collaborate these two styles. I think that using elements of broken mirrors and reflection would be a good way to produce this style. The fashion editorial incorporation is something that I struggled to visualise. Originally, I wanted to do this through clothing, however, it is hard to show this in a portraiture style photograph. Although the idea of broken mirror imagery sounds quite bold and loud, I want to keep an element of elegance. I started by looking into fashion campaigns that used mirror imagery and how they played around with it. Mirror imagery is very versatile, and there are many different perspectives that can be taken. In my opinion, broken mirror photography is more conceptual and often has a deeper meaning, as it is considered bad luck to break a mirror and can make people feel uncomfortable. I also noticed that quite a few jewellery campaigns use mirror and reflective imagery, which helped influence my campaign. I thought about creating a jewellery campaign whilst still including a distorted and conceptual element.