Exhibition
Changing What Mental Health Looks Like Online
When you type 'depression stock photos' into Google image search, it's a wash of mostly white, mostly male models with their heads in their hands or a gun to their head. When you're among the one in four of us suffering with a mental health problem, an article illustrated by a photo like this is demoralising.
Anna wanted to change this and set up an anonymous form with the aim of getting to the root of how mental health disorders actually feel, asking sufferers in our audience to respond with words and phrases so she could work these into visual representation. The results were astounding. "[Depression] feels like I can barely keep my head above water", "[OCD] like there's someone in your head just feeding you lies", "[Depression] foggy, like you're behind a thick pane of glass watching everyone else live life", "[Stress] feels like loads of brightly coloured squiggles intersecting with each other, too much going on."
The aim is that the resulting series of images make some of the more complex feelings of the mind tangible, and encourage empathy and understanding.
The project organically transitioned from the idea to diversify the mental health stock photography at Refinery29, to a standalone feature, and finally to an exhibition in Central London, where the work was shown for two weeks in partnership with The Photography Movement. The opening night was packed with people talking in real life about mental health, which meant a lot and made the whole project feel really change making.
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Photographed by Flora Maclean
Concept, Commissioning & Art Direction by Anna Jay
Concepts by anonymous people who have experienced mental health conditions
Published in the Creative Review Photography Annual 2019
Featured on It’s Nice That
