Statement of Intent

For my project I’m thinking of basing it off of mental health and how it rebells against your love for others. The main focus would be anxiety and how this mental illness can cause people to dissociate themselves from life itself. Dissociation being a big part of the narrative, I am looking to create a film/zine where a lifestyle in reality can turn into something quite dream-like and somehow showing a glimpse of what it may be like for someone who has anxiety or a disorder where it causes them to dissociate or even become nihilistic. The way I’m going to shoot this project will be in first person and having self portraiture intertwined within my film/zine. I am planning on representing these dream-like scenarios by cutting out parts of the world and scenery are myself and possibly cutting out the people around me as well to act as the dissociation. I’ve done a lot of research as to why dissociation happens and what mental illnesses can cause this; illnesses such as; anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. I chose to base my project off of anxiety as I have experienced a lot of anxiety throughout my life as many people have and I feel like I can portray the feelings towards life from someone who has experienced anxiety better than any of the other illnesses listed.

Mood Boards of Inspiring Photographers

John Mannell

This photographer is a London based therapeutic photographer using photography to combat depression and anxiety. When looking at Mannell’s work I felt inspired as he usually takes photographs of individual strangers living their daily life but no one knows anything about their background or their mental state. This links into my project as I will be photographing/filming myself therefore I will be the stranger who no one knows anything about and I will be showing a segment of my life through a photo/film.

‘As I was driving along earlier I saw Julian sat in the horribly cold weather and he looked and smiled at me and gave me the thumbs up as he could hear my music playing. I thought not much more of it but then when I went on my coffee break I thought I would walk around the corner to see if he was there as I knew he would make a great portrait due to the white on his face but when I got closer the match sticks in his beard too. At first I felt bad asking for the photo as you are making an image which to some extent plays on someone’s misfortune by being homeless. But by the same coin to not ask him as I would ask anyone else would be excluding him from what has become a people led project. I sat and spoke to him and we had a cup of tea together as he told me how he used to be a professional dancer and his days back in Jamaica when he was younger. Its horrible that he has ended up on the street but I guess what makes it worse is how so many people walk past and just ignore (me included on so many occasions). He was such a nice guy. Christmas is not a nice time for anyone on their own and I guess if we can just give that one cup of warm tea it might help them feel that Christmas spirit we all love.‘
-Photo of homeless man below

‘Every now and then I take a photo of someone that shows them as I saw them not just visually but personality too. I had a really long day at work and had messy hair, dirty jeans and scruffy top. You could think I’m on the sympathy vote but the reference is to try and show the contrast between me and this man named Devine. He is a security guard and has worked as equally a long day as I have but looked unbelievably smart. His demeanour was proud yet calm and he spoke gently. He was kind enough to walk along the street to pose near some light coming from the Morley’s chicken shop to help take the photo. Anyway, I like this one as from the brief chat we had shows himself as I saw him.’

Daniel Smith – Fade Out

Smith’s work caught my eye as it is fairly dream-like and somewhat ominous. His photos consist of landscapes that occasionally have people posing on the distance to create meaning and representation. He gets his inspiration to take these photos by listen to lyrics in music and poems that he comes across and becomes attached to the ideas he creates in his head before he actually takes the photo. When he is taking his images he dissociates himself from what he is seeing through the lens and doesn’t feels emotionally attached to the images until later on when be is editing them. He says that his work links into depression and helps him to deal with his own mental health; it allows him to feels like he’s not alone I. the world when he takes photos of the subjects in the photo as it’s meant to represent himself.

Daniel Regan

I chose this photographer as my inspiration as well, as his work also comes across quite dream-like but also has a sense of reality. The dream-like connotations are from the light pink, yellow ands blue tones associated with clouds and the sky when put together. A lot of his photographs also Remi d me of waking up in the morn ing due to the lighting and what the main subjects of the photos are e.g. coffee, bedsheets, frosty windows etc.

“Something that I’ll take from Maytree into the rest of my life is to never feel ashamed to talk about my difficulties,” Regan admits. “At Maytree we’re not there to fix someone; we’re there to allow people to speak openly about their crises. It can be uncomfortable, but we want people to live because they want to live, not because we want them to. I think the motivation for me is that it is such an incredible privilege to be able to help people in suicidal crisis, particularly because I have been there myself. ”
-Regan talking in an interview about the photograph of the bed and the bedsheets.