For my personal study, the artists i have chosen to research and take inspiration from are Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak as I’m looking into portraying mental illness through photography. I thought they were the perfect photographers to looking into as they both photograph mental health in their way in the theme of identity.

mood board of Edward Honaker’s photography;

Edward Honaker

mood board of Gabriel Isak’s photography;

analysis;

Edward takes all his images in black and white. I think that this creates a very sad and depressing atmosphere as there’s no colour to his photography, however, that’s the idea he’s trying to create as he’s hiding and blurring out his identity. he uses a simple tonal range, from basic greys all around the background to very dark tones around him and the mirror, this really draws you into him as the contrast between the tones stands out. his photo is taken using natural lighting as you can see there real light coming in through the window behind him, as seen in the mirror. this makes his image seem more natural and simple as there’s no set-up that needed to be done. the composition of the mirror is directly in the middle of the image but slightly to the left which might represent his mental state as it’s slightly off and not in the perfect position. you can tell that either someone took a photo of him or maybe he had a timer set up on his camera with a tripod and did it himself. the background is very simple, just plain wallpaper in a house, showing a slight section of the door. Edward then proceed to edit his image and blur his face out, or he could have even done it with a very slow shutter speed and could have moved his head quickly to create a blurry concept. he does this to his images to blur his identity out and show his mental state, as he doesn’t know quite who he identifies and isn’t confident in how he feels. I think that his photos are very powerful as many individuals are confused about who they really are or who they want to be, and he shows this in a very clever way by blurring his face out. t makes the rest of his image look so put together however when it comes to him, his face is blurry which creates this sense of confusion in his own identity and showing this by standing in front of a mirror was a powerful idea as it looks like he’s reflecting on who he really is by looking at himself.

Gabriels photography is very unique. I think he presents the theme of identity and mental health in such a clever way and links them perfectly. in this chosen image he uses an abstract way of showing identity through using two figures. he uses both black and white and colour in his photography however in this image he focuses on black and white. the contrast is so sharp between the two figures in this image which makes it so interesting. it creates this idea of two different identities that everyone has, like your inner mental health (the black figure checking in on you) and then who you show to be on the outside and how you present yourself to the world being the white figure. his images are very powerful as both figures are sad and it leaves the viewer to the interpretation of what emotions he’s trying to present. the composition of the two figures is right in the centre and he left a big space on top of his image, this draws you right to the figures. he takes his images using a setup lighting equipment to achieve these strong contrasts but usually edits a lot of his images on software to achieve these solid colours and edit the figures digitally sometimes too. his images aren’t blurry which suggests he uses a very quick shutter speed to capture his images in one quick clean snapshot. I think he achieves what he wants to show, people have many personalities and identities and the sad state of their links with mental health.