Insula
2012 - 2013
The images from Insula span across a decade of shooting (2003-2013). During this period I continually made photographs as a means to document the emotional difficulties of living with a chronic mental health disorder, as well as using photography as a tool for recovery. By documenting the mind and body under duress and their struggle to achieve equilibrium, this personal work highlights the enduring search for light amongst the darkness. Whilst receiving medical treatment continues to be beneficial, it is the act of making photographs that address my moods and interrogate my sense of identity that has been extremely valuable in making sense of the fragmented nature of mental illness. Living with mental illness is akin to living with a second skin; it is always with you, etched deep into your psyche.
Interacting with photography in this diaristic manner not only serves as a means to preserve a moment or an experienced emotion, but also acts as a form of photo-therapy, by creating a cathartic process in which I can let go and move forward. Insula is not so much a finished project – it is a chapter within an on-going story of recovery that continues to this day.
Exhibited:
Evidence of Being, Hundred Years Gallery, London, 2014
MAP13 (MA Photography), London College of Communication, 2013
Press:
