Practitioners and Photobooks

Jorden V Jones-Vines - "(you're) too young to be ill"

Throughout college I mostly shot 35mm, that was my comfort zone which meant I didn't spend much time in the studio or shooting digitally. So when I decided to shoot digitally for my Final Major Project I was out of my comfort zone. Back then at least for my level I think I took to this project very well and produced some great images. However now looking back I see lots of framing, lighting and composition issues as I said above. In the self-portraits I've noticed that my light, light switch, box of tissues and sheet hanging on my door are in the frame. These frames are messy and are not considered enough. When shooting my Final Major Project now I will be considering the frame and the composition. There are shots of my tablets and boxes that I decided to shoot on my bed. These images are clearly 

Georgie Wileman - THIS IS ENDOMITRIOSIS

Wileman wanted to put the reality of her disease into images. ‘For many its crippling or labor like cramps during their period every month, for others its near constant pain they have to push through every day. And for some it’s a reflection of these photographs; months on end of being homebound, mostly immobile and in debilitating chronic pain’.  Wileman was always afraid of the ‘crushing realization’ when surgery's and new treatments didn’t work. She would have surgery, get through it and then just when things were getting back to her norm it would all happen again.

I think Wileman was very brave to let out such personal information about herself and tell the world – I don’t think that would of been easy for her to do. Wileman’s, ‘THIS IS ENDOMETRIOSIS’ relates to my project because she has an invisible illness and she is telling and showing people what it is like behind closed doors and in her mind. In my project I am trying to do something similar but In a slightly different way. I am going to try and show what's behind the closed doors and the doors themselves. We both want to make the invisible visible.

Referring to the images ‘see previous’ I feel like they are very emotional and tell a very powerful story especially if you look at the whole series. She doesn’t just want to show her pain but the pain other women go through and transgender men too. All the images have different compositions. I think they were taken how she wanted on which days they were taken on rather than try to make them look studious. They are very real.

I think it is great that she has incorporated objects within her series, like the notebook depicted above. In my own work I would like to photograph and scan objects to go into my series. Showing an invisible Illness can be difficult, using more than just my body and space will help me show my story. 

Nathalie @enmiljontystnader - Self-portraits through the years with 120mm film

I think the way she has used multiple images to create one image works really well in the sense of multiple things being wrong with a person or multiple things going on in their mind. Nevertheless it is something no one can see only that individual can feel it, live it. Her images present this clearly to me. Each image even though she is in each one you cannot see her clearly outlined. Her double exposures work so you wouldn’t be able to see her and tell it’s her. That’s exactly what invisible illness is like. It’s not seen but it’s still there. Nathalie's work links to mine because she is trying to show her invisible side through her imagery. Images don’t always have one meaning. To her it might but it’s how you interpret the images. I feel it has a strong connection to my work. I think it would be interesting to experiment with something similar but digitally as I will not be using film for this project.

Nathalie's use of double exposures really stood out to me the most throughout all of her images. I feel that double exposures have the opportunity to depict double the information if used effectively. I have had some experience with digital multiple exposures but now I would like to give it another go now I have developed my photographic skills further.

Tyler Grace – The Chronic Diaries

"My body is my own personal version of hell.“

Grace lives with a numerous chronic illnesses some of which are, Fibromyalgia ('a chronic muscle and bone condition'), Marfan Syndrome ('a genetic disorder'), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome , Depression and Anxiety. Doctors told him he most likely would see his twenties. "I ended up completely blowing away their expectations considering I'm turning 24 in two weeks’.”

"Photography helps me get a lot of the negative feelings out because there has been a lot of negative feelings and experiences over the years. It has just helped me channel all that and turn it into something positive.”

Grace's body of work stood out to me because I felt like he was depicting raw emotion. He has used a range of places/backgrounds to shoot these images however the places/backgrounds are neutral and look like they could all be in the same place/background. 'A Fragmented Soul', looks to be three exposures layered on top of one another, he has used the opacity filter to blend three images in to one. I think this is a simple yet extremally effective way of depicted his pain. In the three adjoining images he has used props and photoshopped objects such as, rope, bandages and a cloud. One main symptom of fibromyalgia is brain fog and that's why 'The Clouded Mind' stood out to me so individually. I think he has perfectly depicted the brain fog he experiences with his fibromyalgia. 

Chronic Illness', especially those that are invisible can take a great toll on our mental health. It can affect our personal and professional lives and experiences. 'Anxiety' depicts that trapped sensation that some people living with chronic invisible illness' experience. The objects Grace has used are simple yet very effective. He has used light very well, getting either an even coverage or to darken areas. I would like to learn more about the techniques he uses to use within my own work. 

Daniel Regan - I Want Too Live

Regan uses space to show loneliness, emptiness and invisibleness. He doesn't need humans in his imagery. He uses negative space to fill in the gaps, the thoughts, the void. He uses various angles and heights to shoot. There isn't many images of his that are front and center. I feel this makes you look deeper into his images. Regan tells a story of a life of emptiness and invisibleness without including human contact. He does this very simplistically with well lit natural lighting and shadows. His images give me a sense of peace and serenity but also loss and loneliness. 

Within my own life I have times where I struggle with my mental health alongside my physical health and I would like to represent this in my own work inspired by this series. 

Meghan Hill – Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

Throughout Hill's series she depicts her Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome through her flexibility as it is one of the main symptoms of her genetic disease which affects the collagen in the body. I am in the process of being diagnosed with this condition. Their is something called the Beighton score. 'The Beighton Scoring System measures joint hypermobility on a 9-point scale'. This determines whether you have hypermobility syndrome or not. The parts of the body assessed are, 'Knuckle of both little/fifth/pinky fingers, Base of both thumbs, Elbows, Knees and Spine'. 'There are 13 types of EDS, most of which are very rare'. The four most common types are, Hypermobile EDS, Classical EDS, Vascular EDS and Kyphoscoliotic EDS. 

I think her images give a clear representation of flexibility and that there is something going on. However EDS comes with a lot of problems and pain. As beautiful as it is I don’t think it really shows what is going on. I think there needs to be a bit more too it. For example facial expressions and negative energy imagery. I think there is too much beauty and not enough realism. In my project I will be using my own body and I am hypermobile in certain parts of my body. So this gives me the chance to depict my own flexibility which is not seen on a day to day basis. In this series she has a range of grey scale and colour images all of which are beautifully shot. For this series she had a creative friend to help her take the images, Chris West. I think its a good idea to have an assistant with you so you can set the camera up and your assistant can focus the lens and take the picture. By having a second pair of hands you don't need to hold a remote or set a timer. From experience so far, I think a second pair of hands is much more helpful and practical. 

Edward Honaker - Book II

‘A series which illustrates my experiences with depression and anxiety'. This series caught my eye because of the artistic element to the series. The way Honaker has used different methods, digital and physical to manipulate his images to tell a story with extra emotion and depth. He demonstrates his feelings of depression, anxiety, and illness by manipulating his images. He warps his images with lighting and post-production. When looking at the images, you must look deeper to unravel the deeper meaning and he does that by adding multiple angles, faces and coverage such as water, possibly milk. By shooting his series as a black and white series it adds to the already raw emotion and gives a little extra to the delivery of the series. I wanted to incorporate but slightly change Honaker’s work within my own body of work.

Laura Hospes - UCP-UMCG: UCP (I)

'I'm portraying myself in a very difficult moment of my life: I'm depressed and suicidal. My self- portraits are a direct reflection of my emotions, which I can't show in real life. My camera is my conso- lation and listens to me better than anyone else'.

'I want to share the difficulties and loneliness I feel right now. I want to let you feel the pain and fear I feel, even if it's just a fraction. I want you to be with me in my situa- tion so that I feel less alone'.

I came across Hospes work by accident whilst looking at another photographer. Her images caught my eye because of their raw beauty and emotion. Hospes is depicting her depression and suicidal thoughts but she has done so effectively and in a way that know one could miss. In her images you can tell they are depicting something painful and unhappy. She wants to connect with people and her open door is through her images. I don't know whether she shot this on her own or with an assistant, either way she has used a great range of angles and frames. In three of the four images the first thing I see is her eyes. You're immediately drawn in to her eyes before you see the rest of the image. She has shoot with flash and with studio lights. I don't know what format she has used but I think it is digital. In my work I hope I can use these images to take more care with my framing and angles.  

KayLynn Deveney - The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings

Deveney and Hastings met living in the same neighborhood in South Wales. Hastings agreed to work with Deveney on a photographic project so she gradually got to know him and his history photographically and through their chats. The way he organized his life and his time worked out very well for creating a photographic series.

By Hastings (Bert) captioning Deveney's small prints added a personal touch and approach to her documentary project. I think by adding a more personal touch she has changed the images, adding more context which draws the viewer in and adds to the story. This I think is a great way to help depict a documentary story. This series also shows poems and drawings which continually add to the story and photographers creativity. 

She has used light and bright dull tones beautifully throughout this series. The way she has framed this images make it look like Bert is telling his story which he is but its not all upfront and in his face. She has blended in with the background to keep her images subtle and real. I would like to try a similar approach by adding written text into my shoots as well as handwriting on my own body. I feel this way I could compare the writings to and see if one or the other or both work within my own body of work. 

Bryony Campbell - The Dad Project 

Campbell had not initially shot this series as a photographic body of work however she did think that it could be a possibility later on. It was not until three months later that she found herself revisiting the images she took whilst her dad was ill and dying, looking at the memories that she created and produced a body of work with them. 

These images don't show the whole image they show individual sections once you've seen them all together as a 34 image series the story and his deterioration becomes more imminent. The composition of these images makes it so that her dad doesn't necessarily need to be in the frame it can just be a part of him like his feet or what he has left behind, like a milk bottle. I think images like the milk bottle shows memories of what he left behind.

This body of work is raw and emotional. It is a hard series to look at and digest. The way she has photographed  shows loss but keeping his memory alive. How she has included subtle memories I think is a great way of showing loss and emptiness and it is a technique that I want to try within my own body of work. I am going to be using my medication, food and drink with my shoots which will give me the chance to show my own personal loss of myself. 

001 - Major Body of Work 

Practitioners and Photobooks

John Coplans - Self-Portrait, Frieze 

Coplans work was suggested my Andy during our presentation feedback, so I decided to look at some of his work and this piece stood out to me because it was three images cropped and laid out into one 3x3 image which looks amazing. The way he has digitally manipulated his images in post-production to create one stunning more powerful image is inspiring. Coplans has had to be very confident whilst shooting this and learn to look at his body in a way he may never like to look at his body usually making this possibly a hard project to shoot and edit. I'm not quite sure I am in a place where I could do this but it was great to see.

Marvel Harris - MARVEL

I came across this book whilst searching for self-portraiture books on the PHOTOBOOKSTORE and I enjoyed looking through Harris' layouts and the raw emotion he portrays in his imagery. 

Amanda Crommet - Suffering the Silence

Amanda Crommet produced a series of images called, ‘SUFFERING THE SILENCE’. This series shows 11 people in New York City, 11 invisible illnesses. Each person has a different illness that is hidden to the outside world. For example, this woman/girl has asthma but asthma is invisible to the naked eye, another had fibromyalgia and another had HIV. This woman/girl has been photographed on what seems to be an outside blue wall in daylight. The texture of the wall looks rough and looks like what you would see on an outside wall. This person has the word ‘ASTHMA’ painted on her arm. She is using the same arm to cover her mouth, which suggests she is being kept quiet for some reason (asthma affects the breathing from the mouth). With the added context from the photographer you get an understanding that this girl has asthma or is an advocate for someone with asthma and is showing that that asthmas is invisible to people around them. She is doing this by covering her mouth, essentially being mute.

Crommets series visually shows people that invisible illnesses are real, whether they can see them or not. By using people of different ages and ethnicities Crommet has spoken to more than one group of people. This series of images was published in Cashel’s (2015) Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial. Suffering the Silence is an organisation that want to ‘break that silence’. They host retreats and workshops for people living in silence. ‘More than 133 million people suffer from ongoing chronic illness in the United States…That’s over 40% of the total population of this country’ (Suffering the Silence, 2016). Suffering the Silence is an advocacy for people living with these hidden disabilities, even though it is an American organisation, it doesn’t discriminate against other nationalities.

Buku Sarkar - Containment Diaries

This series documents Sarkar's life living with a chronic illness.

“I couldn’t get out of bed today, which is nothing new. I just couldn’t lift my neck from the pillow. I felt like I’d had a concussion. Electric sparks run up my spine. I can’t feel the tremors today. But when you are in the presence of others, you feel you must perform. So I do it, for the sake of my parents. Then perhaps every day has been a performance.”

Through Sarkar's work she likes to keep up to date with people on social media and she has a forum for her work where people can ask her questions which I think is great. I love that her series is so raw and so open to show exactly what it looks like and how it feels to live with a chronic illness and that its not an easy feat. I think in comparison with the work I have produced its is much more self-portraiture style and much more bare and vulnerable. It reminds me a bit of Coplans image above and how vulnerable he must-have felt bare and exposed. Although in some of her portraits she has covered herself with flowers and underwear. I feel as though toilets aren't used in photography all that much as it is considered filthy or un-lady like, so to no less see a woman on the toilet is great to break the stereotypical barrier and show reality. 

Keith Arnatt - Notes 

This is a really simple series but very powerful. It speaks volumes to me because I have terrible memory and brain fog from my fibromyalgia so I am always forgetting everything and my mum is exactly the same so we are both always texting one another things before we forget them, writing each other notes on the fridge and on paper as well as setting alarms. Memory is the forefront of so many invisible and visible conditions but is not always considered an important factor and people just think others just genuinely have a bad memory and maybe that's what this photographer is trying to convey. I would maybe like to use this in my work because it is a part of my life and it could be another form of media I could add to my work. 

Jo Chuckualim - Men Don't Cry 

Chuckualims, Men don’t cry series is shot on 120 mm film, focusing on men and their mental health. The series depicts the raw, naked vulnerability of men which stereotypically isn’t shown often. Even though the whole face isn’t shown in all the images, you still have a strong understanding of a real person physically and emotionally. By shying away from the camera, they are concealing their emotion, however by doing that, it tells me that they are either shy or are hiding their emotions.

In my body of work I would like to show how I feel as well as try to depict invisibleness. I'm not sure how I want to do this whether it be an over the shoulder shot or a forward facing shot with my head in my hands or curling myself up. I think I would like to try both and maybe a few others. The type of shot suggests there is more depth to the image, but its also about showing an unknowingness in my work. I want my viewers to look closer into the series, what does it really mean…?

Marc Thompson – Through Positive Eyes, London, England

Thompsons work 'is a collaborative photo-storytelling project by 130 people living with HIV and AIDS in 10 cities around the world'. I chose this project because again HIV is yet another invisible illness that so many people live around the world with but because its invisible people just wont know unless they are told. This is Marc's story and he shows what's it like living with the condition. The only photo that stood out to me as being visible was him having his blood taken like I have to have done because of the medications that I take but its not somethings again that's obvious to the naked eye unless you see people in the doctors or hospital. I do feel as though these images haven't been shot with the best lighting though.. well the ones inside, they are rather tungsten and dark. 

Mafalda Rakos - I want to disappear

This series helped to put me on the path to my last project reflections and I have found myself coming back to it again. Stereotypically the toilet is talked about by men not women which isn't necessarily true, so to even see it in a series shows reality as it is, Rakos hasn’t covered it up. However, in the picture to the left she’s covering herself up which is a contradiction of the toilet. These images helped to put me on the right path to my project. The bodily functions we normally keep private like having a bath or going to the toilet are now being exposed in my project and Rakos’. One thing that stood out to me was the style of each image. The left looks like a stock image, the middle looks like a self-portraiture piece and the right gives a more documentary vibe. Overall though, these work well together to tell a story of ‘approaching easting disorders.’