For my Personal Study my chosen theme is 'Mental Health Disorders'. I have chosen to investigate this theme because I am interested in the lives of people with mental disorders, as I want to become a psychological counsellor / therapist for children with mental health issues.  I want to research and develop my knowledge around mental health.  I would like to use my photographs to help people with   mental health issues to act as a voice in order to raise awareness and understanding for the rising threat of Mental Health Issues in teenagers today.

​

The content of my work will include self-portrait photographs where I aim to capture the subjects of isolation and depression, death and despair around mental health disorders. This will be achieved through mainly digital manipulation to complete the photographs however, I shall be using some physical tricks and props to complete these photographs and make them more realistic while showing elements of the surreal. I intend to communicate a range of mental disorders through my work but with the hope that people with these mental health disorders are able to use my work as a means to communicate to others how they feel. The photographs will communicate the sadness and despair that people with these issues feel as well as the isolation and pain they go through on a daily basis. I will be using many dark tones and have dark themes running through my work. I would like to show that with Skulls as props and black fabric or materials to connotate the death and emptiness of my model and my photograph. Using unsaturated photographs to really make the photograph seem dead.

One artist who I am really excited research is Christian Hopkins as his work, to me, is fantastic the use of physical props and his outstanding quality on his digital manipulation is inspiring to me to work in a similar style to him, his commitment and determination to create an excellent photograph pays off when he finishes because of the labour he has put in behind it.  I have selected Shawn Coss as his Inktober work stands out to me as perfect illustrations of mental health disorders and his work is relevant to mine to recapture his reflection of the disorders but for me to create them in physical form, a real life portray of the disorders.  Rosie Hardy is an artist I have selected for her simplification using shadows to communicate the idea of the demons in one’s head. The use of shadows comes from the recurring experience that humans have from seeing shadows in the dark or imaging things that aren't there are present, its the mind playing tricks on you and that’s all Mental Health is its a delusional mind. This can help me with ideas of using more of my surrounding and new ways I can show mental health rather than distortion and dispersion. I discovered a photographer called Alex Stoddard whose photographs interest me because of their quality and their environment his use of forest and nature to communicate the entanglement of a broken mind. I have looked at Edward Honaker for his use in black and white photographs as he documents his own depression. Federico Bebber's work influences me with his digital manipulation work. His style has heavily influences the work I have done before and his work has helped develop my skill in digital manipulation and I feel with his processes he can further support me. Lauren Hospes I have selected for her self-portrait photographs and her use of simplification surrounding herself with dark shadows and sitting in rooms of no light. Maren Klemp's work will influence me with her use of lakes in black and white with an eerie and creepy smoke filling the surrounding of the subject. Finally, I have chosen Lee Jeffries for the quality of his close up portraits of people; He manages to capture story and emotion within minimal stimuli.

I intend to use a range of different techniques for my photographs these will include a mix of physical props and digital manipulation. I will make as much realism as I can with physical props to interact with or photograph before using postproduction effects of digital manipulation to combine them together or enhance the message using filters, effects and new techniques I am sure to acquire throughout this process. I intend to process my photographs all digitally having as high of quality as I can to display them on my website. The use of media has aloud my artists to document their journey capturing and creating their work while conveying their own mental health onto the photographs. The artists I have chosen will help me find way of communicating similar ideas onto my own work while allowing me to explore and expand new skills and processes to capture my intended photographs.