For my project, I want to explore femininity and mental health, through a mix of portraits and landscapes. Photography has often been an exploration of ones mental health, and many artists have linked the two important aspects of the life resulting in powerful photographs. Many use photography as a coping mechanism, helping them face their everyday issues. Femininity is something every individual explores during their life, sometimes without noticing it. I think femininity and mental health has a big link since women are stereotyped as being weak and vulnerable by society. For instance, hysteria was attributed to women for thousands of years: even being derived from the Greek word ‘hystera’ which means uterus. Even major psychologists such as Freud considered hysteria as an exclusively female disease, despite it already being proven incorrect. It was originally believed that men could not suffer from hysteria because of their lack of uterus. This belief was discarded in the 17th century when discourse identified the brain or mind, and not reproductive organs, as the root cause of hysteria. I think hysteria would be interesting to explore through self- portraits and landscapes (for example of St. Saviour’s hospital; the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum and other abandoned buildings) as it incorporates mental health and femininity well. I think it links in well with the exam theme’s OBSERVE, SEEK, CHALLENGE since it will be an exploration of a significant historical aspect of femininity, I could observe how hysteria is portrayed and seek to find out how to portray it myself. I want to challenge the stereotypes of mental illness and femininity, as well as the historical relevance of hysteria, and challenge ‘typical’ feminine photography.

True femininity is about emotions and feelings, not just the appearance of an individual. For me, these themes are an opportunity to discover and research femininity, feminism and mental health, and create my own response to it, questioning different point of views and other artists’ work. Moreover, mental health is a big aspect of every woman’s life, and I think it is important to explore this, whether through photography or another medium. The most significant and important (in my opinion) female photographer who explored femininity and mental health is Francesca Woodman, who captured black and white self portraits, expressing her emotions which she couldn’t put into words. She was very young when she passed, and I believe this makes her work even more powerful and personal. She is my main inspiration for this project, and I find her use of abandoned- looking backdrops, slow shutter speed, uncoloured images very effective in portraying her emotions.

I want this project to end in the creation of a photobook- since I think it would tie my project in well together, creating a sequence of abstract portraits which focus more on emotion and the metaphors of femininity instead of striking feminine photos. After her death in 1981, Woodman’s photos weren’t disclosed to the public for many years after. I think the lack of uniformity in her work adds to the overall theme of mental health, but I believe my work will look most successful as a photobook. I will begin my study by researching hysteria and using Woodman as a inspiration for my photoshoots, looking for places around Jersey that would be suitable for my project. I like how Woodman also uses props (whether it is the space around her or specific objects) in ways that adds a even deeper mood to each photograph, as well as making each image unique.