Milena Ramos Personal Study Essay question: How have the artists explored the themes of mental health within their work and how have their portrayed mental health issues in their own way? And what is their individual approach? Sub question: Can mental health be portrayed visually successfully and explained in art? My intention of this essay is to analyse and explain how my artists have explored mental health issues and how they have approached it individually, in addition to that I will be evaluating whether or not they have portrayed it successfully even though mental health Is subjective. Edward Honaker is a 24- year-old photographer form California, United States, he was diagnosed with a mood disorder, depression and anxiety in 2013. In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said he tried to “document his personal experience with depressive disorders in a series of self-portraits”1. Figure 1 Edward Honaker has explored the theme of mental health in an interesting and different ways because of his own personal experience. In an interview with the Huffingtonpost.com2, Honaker said, “It’s kind of hard to feel any kind of emotion when you’re depressed,”. A Picture that links to this quote is the first photo because you can’t see his facial expression, it is covered by paint. By Honaker saying that it is hard to “feel any kind of emotion”, this is reflected in this photograph. This piece can also mean that he is trying to hide his emotions from everyone close to him. this indicates that his work is indeed about his mental health issues and his aim is to get an emotional reaction from the viewer. Edward Honaker started a project that illustrates his own experiences with depression and anxiety. Every single picture in the project is very emotional and intense. Honaker’s work relates to my question because this whole project is about his mental illness and he explored it in his own way since everyone’s experience with mental health is different, he used his own experiences to influence his artwork. In the same interview he also says, “I think good art can definitely move people”, this indicates that he is trying to get an emotional reaction from the viewer, he is trying to get the viewer to really think about his art and as a result the viewer will be moved by is work. Figure 2
1 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3240571/Photographer-suffering-depressioncaptures-mental-illness-haunting-series-self-portraits-raise-awareness-disorder.html 2 https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/edward-honaker-photography-mentalillness_us_55f0759ce4b03784e2777fbb 1
Milena Ramos Honaker also says that “the most helpful thing anyone could have done was just to listen to me- not judging, not trying to find a solution, just listen.” Figure 2 is a self-portrait of Edward Honaker covered by a fabric that blends in with the background, this links to the quote above because no one truly listened to him and as a result he forced himself to blend with everyone. He did this so that others can see him as a normal person and not judge him on his issues but the irony is that the patterns do not match perfectly this indicates that he attempted to blend in and it did not work. I think everyone can relate at least to one of his black and white images from this project whether they suffer from depression or not; his work is supposed to be relatable to those who suffer from mental illnesses as well as informative for the people who are fortunate enough not to experience it. I believe that the whole project is in black and white because it emphasises the negative emotions that are associated with the pictures, feelings of loss and helplessness. Black and white images are notoriously known to trigger certain emotions such as sadness, nostalgia or yearning and in this case it is sadness/depression. Another similarity between all the images in the Honaker’s project is the fact that you cannot see Honaker’s face in any of the self-portraits. This could be for a number of reasons being that he doesn’t want to put a face to his work so that everyone can put himself in his shoes. Another reason is so that you cannot identify him this contrasts the fact that mental illnesses do not have a face, gender or race anyone can be effected by it.
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Milena Ramos In figure 3, there is a shirtless man lying on draws and this reminds me of an ‘eating disorder’ because, stereotypically, people with eating disorders tend to be underweight and this project includes this photograph is about anxiety, depression and mental health in general. Skinny people are often seen as weak and fragile, just like the dying flower next to the man. Figure 3 The person in the photograph could be mimicking the dying plant, the way his back and head is bent similarly to the wilted plant beside him. Honaker’s body language is very negative because is he is lying there, lifeless, as if he has no purpose, almost as if he is suicidal and given up similarly to the flower. The previous quote relates to the picture because it looks like Honaker has given up because he wasn’t able to find an emotion during his depression hence why he is laying there helplessly. Flowers are also a sign of fragility because flowers are so delicate, this is related back to skinny people because they are often seen as inferior and weak people due to their size. Honaker and the dying flower are at the same distance away from the camera and the same height which means that they are the same level representing the same thing which I think is genius. This picture has a very dark meaning behind it, mental health is seen as something very negative because it is depressing. The plant represents how depressed this person is, a wilted plant also represents death. The fact that this is a self-portrait it makes it more personal because the artist can relate to it and it gives a more powerful message. Once again Honaker’s face is not visible, this could be a reflection on how fragile and vulnerable he feels about his mental health, if he included his faces in the photographs this would’ve allow the viewers to see his identity and this could make him feel vulnerable. This could also link to the fact that before someone is diagnosed, the illness is essentially hidden from them because they are not aware of it. My first artist has defiantly explored mental health issues through their work and in their own unique way. Honaker has made his work personal by making sure all the pictures in the projects are self-portraits, this makes the viewer feel closer to him and it makes the story he is trying to tell more genuine. Throughout the whole project you can see links between all the images and how they are circle back to mental health issues. Honaker has successfully portrayed mental health visually by making the pictures black and white, negative space that
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Milena Ramos collates with the negative stigma surrounding mental health issues and not being able to see his face. Christian Sampson is a 23-year-old photographer from Peru, Indiana and now lives in Brooklyn , New York. Sampson received his MFA from Hunter College in 2006. 3 Sampson started to get recognised when he started to take pictures about mental illness in 2014 in an advance photography class.4 Christian Sampson started a school project about physical illnesses like cancer however he wanted to create something that people struggled with every day. Sampson used his friends as models and did research on some of the most common mental health disorders around the world. In eight weeks, Sampson designed and photographed each of his 12 chosen disorders and he tried to do this as accurate as possible with the knowledge he gained through his research. The 12 illnesses he chose were panic, Tourette’s, OCD, paranoia bipolar, addiction, depression, schizophrenia, anorexia, autism and insomnia.5 This was later posted on his Facebook and titled it “A Visual Depiction of Mental Disorders”
There are two versions of the same person, a young woman, handcuffed to one another, one is happy and the other looks angry and It looks like the girl is in an empty room all alone. If I were to describe to someone who could not see this artwork I would say it is dark, eerie and depressing. Each version of herself is expressing a different emotion this photograph represents bipolar disorder, this is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity level and 3 http://lvl3official.com/artist-of-the-week-christian-sampson/ 4 https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/27/living-with-mentaldisorders_n_9089996.html?guccounter=1 5 http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/27/living-with-mental-disorders_n_9089996.html 4
Milena Ramos ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, this is represented through the girl’s expressions. The fact that she is cuffed to herself could mean that there is no escape from herself because there is no cure for bipolar disorder. "[The collection] actually started out as physical illnesses like cancer, but I wanted to create something that people struggled with every day but couldn't see," he tells The Huffington Post Canada. "I wanted the majority of people to relate to them." What stands out to me in this photograph is the fact that the girl is barefoot which means that the girl is also vulnerable because she is not protecting her feet, people with mental health disorders could relate to this. The picture is in black and white (and the whole project) which makes the photograph stronger and emotional. The corners of this photograph are dark, I think this could represent how she cannot escape herself because she is surrounded by darkness. I can see that the right version of the girl is very desperate it looks like she is angry, screaming at the top of her lungs or crying for help. The most important part of this picture is the handcuffs because they are very symbolic, representing how she is trapped by her mental illness. If I were in this painting I would feel very isolated and anxious because I am trapped on my own, with only my thoughts. What interests me most about this photograph is its message and the artist's project as a whole. This picture is not drastically different to real life because there are some people out there that could relate to this image in a psychological way if they suffer from bipolar disorder. Sampson is the only artist I chose for this essay that does not to have any self-portraits within his project and I believe that this makes it less personal so he misses the opportunity to connect with the viewer straight away. In addition to this Christian Sampson has never admitted to having mental health problems or even confirm he can relate to it, all of his work is based on research. When asked why Sampson made these photographs he responded by saying “I was inspired by different people in my life that struggle with a lot of these health issues.” 6 This indicates that he was not inspired by his own mental health issues rather by the people around him and the research he did prior to taking the photographs. Sampson’s work is different because it is not a direct reflection on what he has gone through rather what others around him have gone through. The Huffington Post states that Sampson asked his friends to be his models so not even the actual models in the pictures have suffered from the corresponding mental health disorder. Katie Joy Crawford is a photographer who rose to fame with her end of year project for University, ‘My anxious heart’.7 Katie Joy Crawford started a project called “My Anxious Heart”, Crawford explained on her blog that “My Anxious Heart explores and identifies how emotionally and physically depleting general anxiety disorder can be from a personal perspective.” Crawford relates to
6 http://acheronmag.wixsite.com/acheron/single-post/2016/1/30/Christian-Sampsonsbrilliantly-creepy-take-on-mental-illness 7 https://katiejoyhealth.com/about/ 5
Milena Ramos the question because I am questioning whether or not she has explored mental health issues in her work and if she has done it accurately. The three words I would use to describe uncomfortable, trapped and vulnerable. The materials used to create this artwork are the items used in this picture and Katie Joy Crawford edited the girl into the hourglass using Photoshop. I think ‘fragility’ is a massive aspect of this picture because being nude is making this person feel vulnerable and she is the same size of the smaller items like clocks so this could imply that she always feels small in her world. This photograph differs from real life because a normal sized person wouldn’t usually be the same size of clocks and an hourglass. If this picture could make a sound, I think it would make a constant tick-tock sound from the clock, this could also represent a constant pressure that time is passing by and she is running out of time. Katie Joy Crawford created other pieces of work similar to this to show and represent her struggles of her ‘anxious heart’ after battling with anxiety for over a decade. When Crawford posted this photograph on her blog she posted it with the caption, “I’m afraid to live and I’m afraid to die. what a way to exist.” Crawford says that she is “afraid to die” and this is shown through the hourglass, her body is trying to stop time by using her body to block the sand going through but she is afraid to live’ and she wants time to stop and this is shown through the clocks. The on-going theme of this project is Crawford expressing her ‘anxious heart’ through her work in spring 2015. This project ‘explores and identifies how emotionally and physically depleting general anxiety disorder can be from [Crawford’s] perspective”. Crawford has represented different physical ramifications of the disorder like racing heart, dizziness, shortness of breath and light-headedness. All the photographs in this project are self-portraits because Crawford is capturing her own personal experience with anxiety, her interpretation of the symptoms and ‘how true anxiety has the capability to drain every last drop of aspiration”.
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Milena Ramos Katie Joy Crawford represents her mental health issues very well throughout the project and she does it in her own way. She has used props in her work to represent different parts of her depression and anxiety. The similarities between Christian Sampson and Edward Honaker is that all their photographs are in black and white. Black and white photos make a powerful statement something both artists are trying to achieve, it can also evoke a mood of sadness something colourful pictures can’t do because bright colour makes the picture too busy and distracts from the overall message. The key difference between Sampson and Honaker is the fact that Honaker’s photos are self-portraits. Sampson’s posts are more surreal and less realistic than Honaker’s because Sampson is trying to recreate what happens in someone’s mind which can only be achieved by manipulating the photo to its full extent. However, Honaker does use some type of manipulation in his artwork but not at the extent of Sampson’s, I believe this is because Sampson doesn’t experience this personally so he has to rely on what other people say, photoshop/post production and recreate that from his own perspective as an outsider. So, both Honaker and Sampson have approached mental issues in their own way, one from their own personal experience and Sampson through research. Even though they approached it differently, both visually represented mental health issues through their work and both accurately too. I believe that they have accurately represented mental health disorders and they haven’t at the same time because from what I know about it, from research, films and seeing the effects of it from people I know, the artworks are very accurate. Honaker using his own experience is both a positive and negative because he only has one reference when creating his art work, his mind, his own experiences which do not accurately represent the rest of the suffers. However, Sampson’s work is based on research which I assume that he has read many stories online about how it feels to have those certain disorders so he would have a bigger sample size which makes it more relatable and general. The similarities between Edward Honaker and Katie Joy Crawford is that both their projects are self-portraits and I previously mentioned that this makes the work much more personal as well as empathetic. Both artists are victims of mental health issues so they can create art work based on their experiences however this can be a negative thing because it is only based on their experiences alone and everyone’s brain is wired differently. I believe that their project is much more personal and powerful because they use their experiences. The main relationship between Christian Sampson’s work and Katie Joy Crawford is that their work is more surreal because they have manipulated their photographs in Photoshop. I could argue the reason why Sampson used Photoshop is because he cannot relate to having a mental health disorder so the express this through his work he needs to work on it in postproduction however Crawford used Photoshop too. Sampson relied on the internet for his inspiration which may in fact be more accurate then Edward and Sampson’s work because they have a bigger sample size. The only similarity between Katie Joy Crawford’s and Edward Honaker is their experiences even though mental health experiences vary person to person, how personal and close they both are to their projects is what makes their photographs so effective. Sampson covers 12 mental health issues while Crawford and Honaker cover their own problems. Crawford is the only artist that does not have a black and white image, all her pictures are in colour however all her pictures use neutral colours. What I mean by this is that 7
Milena Ramos her colour palette throughout her pictures are black and grey, so her choice of colour is very minimalist and simplistic and don’t involve bright and happy colours. I believe that all three artists have explored mental health issues in their own ways because that is the only way any artist can approach anything in a creative way. What is important here is perspective, perspective is to the key to art when talking about personal issues and all three artists have achieved this successfully. Katie Joy Crawford and Edward Honaker’s work are all based on their knowledge on mental health while Christian Sampson is based on research about multiple health disorders and I believe his work to be accurate because his work has common traits to those who have mental health disorders like the surrealism and black and white theme.
In my narrative, I was more inspired by Katie Joy Crawford’s surreal approach to her mental health issues because I think it is more effective, sometimes you cannot create a good enough story without adding a bit of a surreal touch to the artwork. In addition to that, I wanted to add my own style to it and not copy the artists completely so to contrast the sad theme I added a bright colour to one of my final outcomes. I was inspired by Christians Sampson’s bipolar disorder art work because of the different emotions and I implemented seeing the same person at once. My breif ws to create and a book cover for Maggie Mack’s knew book where she talks about mental health and along side that create a poster.In my own narrative, I created an image inspired mostly by Katie Joy Crawford and the feeling being “trapped” or “alone”. I took a portrait and edited a person who appears to be alone trapped in her own head. Two of my artists use black and white filter on their photos however I wanted to do the opposite to contrast the mood of the photo and coloir. Yellow is universitlyknown for a happy, positive 8
Milena Ramos and break colour that represents happyness. There is already happening in this book cover so I decided to keep the font really plain and bold. In the other poster, I was representing bipolar disorder, which is when there are chemical imbalances in the brain which affects a person's mood, this can result in extreme and unpredictable mood swings. So, this is shown though the two different faces and with diffierent facial expression the same person has on either side of the body. Those faces are meant to be sad to almost normal facial expression because people that suffer from this condition also tend be be unpredictable wit thtier emotions. And, I tried to demostrate this through this poster. I also added a relateble or understandable quote which people will be intrigued by and encouarged to call the samatian number to seek help. The relatonship between my narrative and my artists is that it is aimed at the same audience. Both Edward Honaket and Chtistian Sampson made their projects to raise awareness and influence other people to get help. And, my poster encourages people to get help and the book is about the authors mental health issues. I believe that mental health issues can be portrayed in art successfully because these three arts have done that effectively. They used their own experience and knowledge to create art works that represent their mental health issues. Even though, every body’s mind is different and people with mental health issues can relate to the artist’s work and that is why I believe it is effective. The viewers are able to understand and relate to a piece of art work and in my opinion that is what makes an art work successful. Each artist has interpreted creating their art work in different way and I believe this is what sets them apart from anyone else because if you are able to create an art work that is very unique but you still manage to captivate the audience and make them relate then is it effective. Edward Honaker has explored the themes of mental health issues by experimenting with paint and patterns, he was able to make items in is work mean something and represent a part of his experience; like blending into the background because he either feels invisible or wants to blend in so people will not judge him. In Crawford’s art work the viewer can see how vulnerable she is and in Sampson’s work you can see how he has represented bipolar disorder. To conclude, I think that all three artists have explored mental health issues in their own way because that’s all they know, they only know from their perspective and that is the only way to interpret it. They have used photo manipulation both digitally and by hand to express even further how they feel, to properly communicate with the viewer. Their individual approach to creating art is the result of their work, how each one is so different but they essentially covering/explaining the same thing and that is what I find so interesting about their narrative. All three art works, have a different story to tell because they are all unique in their own ways and that is what makes their artwork so effective and successful. Bibliography Tempesta, E. (2015, September 19). Photographer captures his depression in series of selfportraits. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article3240571/Photographer-suffering-depression-captures-mental-illness-haunting-series-selfportraits-raise-awareness-disorder.html
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Milena Ramos Holmes, L. (2015, September 14) These Photos Capture The Anguish Of living With Depression. Retrived from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/edward-honakerphotography-mental-illness_us_55f0759ce4b03784e2777fbb (2011 March 14) Artist of the Week Interview, Retrived From http://lvl3official.com/artistof-the-week-christian-sampson/ https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/27/living-with-mental-disorders_n_9089996.html? guccounter=1 Patel, A. (2016, January 1) Photographer Captures The Haunting Reality Of What Mental Disorders Look Like. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/27/living-with-mental-disorders_n_9089996.html Phillips, B. (2016, January 30). Christian Sampson’s Brilliantly Creepy Take on Mental Illness, Retrived from Acheronmog http://acheronmag.wixsite.com/acheron/singlepost/2016/1/30/Christian-Sampsons-brilliantly-creepy-take-on-mental-illness Official site of Katie Joy Crawford, Bio https://katiejoyhealth.com/about/
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