Mental Disorders - State of Mind

[011_Johnny]

Hello! This was my theme and idea for my first photo exibition, every photo is one Mental Disorder I will not name photos its more interesting that you try to recognize disorders... Enjoy, hope you like it.

 

[DanOstergren28 4]

As someone who is diagnosed Bipolar, this is somewhat interesting. Where is your inspiration coming from? Why are you doing this project?

 

[011_Johnny]

As someone who is diagnosed Bipolar, this is somewhat interesting. Where is your inspiration coming from? Why are you doing this project?

Exibition was part of photography workshop in which I was involved...
I had oportunity to pick my own theme...

I wanted to be creative and useful in same time... So I decided to spread awareness about this problem... Because I know some people who have Schizophrenia... I read about mental illness, done some extra research and present my point of view on people problems and so i made State of Mind for five Disorders.... Also i have plan to make a couple more, bipolar is one of them...

 

[DanOstergren28 4]

As someone who is diagnosed Bipolar, this is somewhat interesting. Where is your inspiration coming from? Why are you doing this project?

Exibition was part of photography workshop in which I was involved...
I had oportunity to pick my own theme...

I wanted to be creative and useful in same time... So I decided to spread awareness about this problem... Because I know some people who have Schizophrenia... I read about mental illness, done some extra research and present my point of view on people problems and so i made State of Mind for five Disorders.... Also i have plan to make a couple more, bipolar is one of them...

From personal experience, the shot with the noose and the shot with the 3 heads both represent bipolar very well, even if it wasn't your intention with those particular shots. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these as you finish them; do you have a website for this particular body of work?


From a technical photographic standpoint, all of the photos are good. I'm not a fan of the lighting in the shot with the three heads, and think you would have gotten better results with something more on the lines of short lighting which would have given you moodier light. The flat lighting doesn't work for me personally. I think short lighting could have helped enhance the mood of the noose shot as well.

I feel like the shot of the girl with the blindfold would be better without the pillow. As it is, I feel like the pillow doesn't add anything except one more thing to focus on. I feel that just the blindfold, alarm clock and the model's expression are enough to deliver the message, but the pillow makes it become cluttered and is perhaps one too many things for the eye to focus on.

The shot of the boy with the alarm clocks is excellent and I wouldn't change a thing. The shot of the girl with hands reaching for her is excellent as well, although I would suggest adding another arm in the lower left segment; I feel like the empty spot there throws off the harmony of the composition. Either way, those two are really well done.

 

[waday]

I'm really glad you're taking this on as a project, because mental disorders are real and don't get taken seriously by many people. The photos are interesting, and I want to see more.

Sorry to be harsh, but I'm not feeling an emotional connection to some these, which I want as a viewer. I agree with Dan that the 3 heads and the woman with the hands are good shots.

For example, I'm not a fan of the depression/suicide one. In my opinion, it's not an accurate depiction and is a cop-out. Yes, I get it, she's depressed, but it doesn't tell a story and has no emotional connection to the viewer, at least it doesn't have a connection for me. Have you talked to anyone with depression? Really talked with them? Did you get a feel for their thoughts on a daily basis? Why they feel the way they do? What they feel?

Put yourself in their shoes. I've known several people with depression, and have flirted with it myself in the past, and suicide isn't necessarily the thing that people with depression walk around thinking. They're not good enough, they're stupid, they'll never get anywhere in life, they're overwhelmed, the world would be better off without them, etc. You need to capture this in a photo. Not a noose.

Take all of that and put it in a photo. Yeah, it's hard, but if you can accomplish that, it'll be rewarding for you and the viewer.

 

[Gary A.]

Very interesting and well done. But ... the big but, these strike me as very clinical ... cold ... a-line-in-the-sand ... in or out images. Which is fine, if that is what you're after. I'd like to see something to augment your extreme images ... some middle ground, some not so clinical, more environmental, images representing those of us not at the edge of the bell curve. Those, obviously would not be as extreme or easy to set up as what you have displayed ... but I think they would have a greater impact on the viewer, more could relate and see themselves in the images. More images in the gray zone than the black and white zone of social mental health. Again, my recommendation is to augment not replace.

I think you did a very good job on these.

 

[011_Johnny]

Thank you for comments... I will try to answer all of you one by one

@DanOstergren:
- I know some of them look like couple of disorders, but that is also because those disorders are similar...
- I don't have any website, but i will put photos in same thread here...
- About light... that is my livingroom, only source of light was one big window in front of models, thats it... I did my best in those conditions
- About pillow, maybe you are right... i wanted one more item to be clear that is about sleep... but if you got it without pillow too, then you are right.

@waday:
- I don't know what to say about that you don't feel emotional as much as you want as a viewer, my idea was that i take photos of "state of mind" not photos of people you know... all of those are their minds... that is the way I imagine them... I will try to be better with new photos about same subject, then we will talk again about "feeling photos" I will pay more atention on message that photos sents to viewers...

@Gary A.:
- If I understood you... I need to say again... that is "state of mind" not people... so I wanted that black around them... I wanted to isolate them... maybe some other time I should take photos of people, not their minds... then i can make them in everyday life... when sleeping, eating, talking with friends etc.

 

[DanOstergren28 4]

- About light... that is my livingroom, only source of light was one big window in front of models, thats it... I did my best in those conditions

There's a lot more you can do with window lighting than you may think. You can achieve short lighting just by changing the angle at which you and the model are positioned from the window. Unless space is an issue that's preventing you from being able to change the direction from which you're shooting and positioning the models.

 

[DanOstergren28 4]

I think the shot with the noose is quite poignant, especially if it's a thought that often swims around in your mind, which is often the case for those suffering from certain disorders. That scene invokes a lot of emotions, so I definitely think it holds accuracy in many ways, especially by putting such heavy focus on the noose itself. To me it's striking and evocative.

 

[Tim Tucker 2]

I'm really impressed. You've taken and abstract idea, the borderline of human emotions, and tried to express it visually.
It is not at all easy as you have two main problems, one is that it can be very difficult to empathise yourself. The second and main one is that emotion is really the response triggered by your image in others and for that they also need an emotional connection to what you're trying to convey. It is wrong to think that you can hand that out on a print, the emotional response must always reside within the viewer and their own experience.

However there are some suggestions using some well trod formula, but you must always balance these with your understanding and your desire to be serious about this rather than cliched, as my suggestions are prone to be.

With the pillow, Dan is correct. Pillows are often regarded as symbols of comfort, remove it. The clasping hands are great, maybe a tight almost painful grip on her own leg?

With the noose try some other connotations. How about the noose being the fuzzy and always present concept OOF but just recognisable? If you experimented with direction, down instead of up and see what happens?

With the heads why not also reflect the moods in your scale of tones to reinforce the expression, dark/light? It can also add depth where the constant tones of the faces suggest equality, (and may also encourage your eye to move more, settle less on the middle, but I may be wrong).

Just as an example, nothing more:

 

[crimbfighter]

I like what you've done with these. I don't have much to say about the technical aspects of the images that hasn't already been said, other than to reiterate that 2, 4, and 5 and really good just the way they are. 1 and 3 didn't strike me as quickly, but are still strong images. I also think the viewer is the one who is going to subjectively relate to the images. It's hard to define one illness with one photo as they often effect people differently, or people may have multiple diagnosis that represent more than one. Presenting the images and letting the viewer define them, without having a right or wrong, I think is the best way to let the images speak for themselves. Even those without the mental illnesses themselves may have family or friends with them, so they may still be able to translate their own experiences to the images.

I would like to see images like these incorporated in some sort of public awareness campaign. I am fortunate to not have suffered from mental illness myself, besides acute depression as a teenager, but I work with a population often devastated by undiagnosed, untreated, or undertreated disorders. Too often our broken mental health system coupled with lack of awareness and understanding leaves those suffering with little or no hope of remedy. Really nice set and keep it up.

 

[kerria]

I'm not expressing on the technical side because I'm a total newbie. I'm just trying to report my impressions.
I really like the one with the guy with multiple clocks. Since he's setting all of them to the same hour I might guess it's about OCD.
That of the girl trying to avoid the contact with other people might be Social Anxiety disorder as well as Schizophrenia with paranoid delusions.
I don't really like the one with the girl and the noose, since you mentioned the pictures should be about mental disorders. That of associating depression to suicide is quite a common thing, but the choice of a less obvious focus point might have been more informative; the loss of interest or pleasure in doing the things you used to like before, that is just one example.
I don't know exactly what kind of exhibition is it, but I'm glad someone is trying to raise awareness in a topic that is quite difficult to represent without abusing of cliches.