Robert Lenkiewicz is a painter who paints about life. He first started painting the homeless but then went on to painting about mental illness. He painted images called 'Mental Handicap' he looked at the disadvantages that these people had within society, this sort of painting had a powerful message in when it came into society and he portrayed this through this particular image.
Lenkiewicz wanted individuals to see them as 'These are people. These are part of our society. They are ourselves.' Each family contributed to the survey their response to a short questionnaire about the impact of their child’s condition on their lives.' I feel that documenting this and even though its not mental illness such as depression or self harming but its still affecting someone's life and can cause mental illness such as depression and self harming because they feel like an outsider, so I feel that painting someone who is handicap is good, as the quote above says they are individuals just like the rest of us.
These individuals in the painting are Barbara Bridgeman and Caroline Young (painted in 1976)
George Harding is another artist who suffered from mental illness and painted images of mental illness. He quoted that' These paintings are of self portraits, portraits of artists, friends, family and mental health professionals who have guided and helped me through my mental health problems'. He has gone a different route of portraying mental illness, instead of painting these dark and worrying paintings he has decided to show a positive side of mental illness that there are people out there who are willing to help such as friends and family and mental health professionals, quoted again 'The work encourages people to look at ‘us’ in a way that is celebratory, unconventional and can teach us something about different ways of being.' He wants people to see mental illness as something which can get better not something which is looked down upon and something where no one can get better from it, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
I like this idea which George Harding has approached and I feel that I would love to approach this kind of thing, by making mental illness into a positive thing and not this scary disease which can't be beat as many people believe this is true. I would like to still focus on someone harming themselves or being depressed but somewhere in the image be it on their arm or the floor or someone in the image positive thinking words such as Hope, Faith, Loving, Caring, Kind, because this is showing good things about a particular individual and its giving others who are suffering a sense of Hope.
Not only have I have been looking at photographers who are capturing the true essence of mental illness in a way which is so powerful and real it touches you. I have now moved on to look at artists who capture mental illness. The reason behind me looking at mental illness through an artists point of view is they would be able to draw/paint something which is much more raw than a photograph, in a painting or a drawing you have to use your imagination to capture and get a grasp of the picture.
An artist which I have found appealing and interesting is Clare Lieu, she looks at mental illness but in painting form. One piece of work which I was most drawn to is her paintings on 'Falling' she quoted while on this project "This project is a visualization of personal experience with depression and anxiety. The condition brought on frequent episodes where I felt emotionally and physically out of control. Unable to “release” myself from these episodes, I waited for the physical limitations of my body to end them. Recounting the affected years, I realize how accustomed I became to depression’s influence; many emotions and feelings belonged to it and not my own personality. After an extended, untreated struggle, a diagnosis brought relief, and the process of unearthing myself from the disease began." She is talking about her struggles with depression which I feel is really raw and real, she has opened up about it and created art work to help explain to others what she felt like on a day to day basis.
Here are some of her painting of 'Falling'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoelangham/
this is the link to my flickr with all my photos. :)
Not only have I been looking through books to find photographers but I have also been looking at other students work from different places and one which has court my eye is a tumblr account by a student from London who is also looking into mental health and they are taking pictures which are representing this.
What I think has really touched a soft spot with me was this wasn't just fantasy for them it was actual reality as they go on to explain that their mother suffered with mental health and they were expressing the affect it had on their relationship but also the affect they were going through as well growing up with having to deal with that. The pictures this individual has put up wants to show others the sad realisation and show the emptiness and sadness which the photographs are giving off.
I want this to happen within my photographs, I want to create this sadness and emptiness within the photo to get the same effect that these individuals having over there own audiences.
While researching and reading through depression and that mental illness tag which comes along with it. I have come upon a photographer who is called Christian Hopkins. He captures images which create emotive towards the image which helps cope with depression. He has been battling with major depression for the past four years and many of his photographs are a reflection of the dark thoughts and feelings swirling around in his mind.
What I like about Christian Hopkins is the fact that he has never taken a photograph class before in his life yet and produced some amazing and beautiful images. There is one image which has really stuck in my mind was a photography of a bare back with what seemed like hands coming out of his back, its sending this message that someone is trying to get out but actually to me its very moving.
I am going to be taking parts of Christian Hopkins as well as C Paige. The part I am taking from Hopkins is the bare back but from C Paige I am taking is the writing on the body, he writes around the body as well as on the body but I feel that writing on the body is much more powerful and creates this meaning without pushing it in front of people.
Larry Clark was my inspiration behind this photograph which I have taken, even though his photograph is graphic and you can truly see the pain in the young person's face I am unsure if I want my subject to have the same reaction.
My image at the moment is just someone thinking about self harming, this image is work in progress and I will be taking more photographs of this and changing it around, I want to go a different route than just the normal seeing someone self harm but I feel due to speaking to individuals I need to go more dark and create the moment which this individuals are in and portray to the audience exactly what they are feeling at that particular moment in time.
I feel that black and white photography will help this image as I feel even though black and white is elegant its still showing this dark side of a picture which self harming is exactly that.
