Thilde Jensen
Thilde Jensen is a photographer from Denmark, in 1997 she moved to New York, six years later her life changed as she got a sudden development of severe Environmental Illness and her documentary and editorial photography was cut short. Thilde decided to make a series about Environmental Illnesses called ‘The Canaries’ these were published in The New York Times and other magazines. Thilde’s first monograph ‘The Canaries’ was published in 2013. http://thildejensen.com/ These are a set of images that Thilde Jensen took when she had Environmental Illness and she went around and photographed others who had the same to see what their lives were like. Throughout Thilde’s books there are little A5 slips of paper that have been slipped in throughout, these have writing in which shows what the people in some of these images were saying when she met them at the time she was taking the photographs, these notes of paper give an insight into the conversions that Thilde was having with these subjects but also into the mind of someone who has Environmental Illness.
In this image this man is in his bedroom where he has a foil barrier. This man has Environmental Illness which is why he has covered his room in foil, this is to protect him. To this man, this room is his safe place. On Thilde’s website and in her book it does not say what illness this man has, so i am unsure of his condition. However, the man has no shoes on which can arguably show that he is living in some sort of state of poverty. This image documents this man’s life in this one photograph and implies the struggles that he faces on a daily basis. I think that this image is interesting because of the reflection that is on the foil, it shows the a glimpse of the outside world, which it looks like the man is missing, as you can see the sun that is coming through the windows.
In this image this is Thilde Jensen herself, as she got Environmental Illness she had to stop taking her normal photographs that she liked to take. Instead she began taking photographs of others who had Environmental Illness while she tried to tackle it herself as well. I think that this image is interesting as Thilde’s face in this image shows the pain that she is in, and how hard it must be living with Environmental Illness.
I think that this image out of all of the ones from the series ‘The Canaries’ this one is the most shocking as the women looks violently ill in this image. This image is of a lady called Jen, she is stuck in the bath tub as she is too fatigued to move. This portrait image is striking because of the the lady Jen’s bags that are under her eyes, they imply that she has not had sleep in a while and shows the stress that Environmental Illness is having on her.