My work focuses on the therapeutic qualities that nature can offer and how the natural elements of the landscape can heal individuals suffering from a mental illness. It concerns the connection that individuals suffering from a mental illness have with nature. Using photography as a form of art therapy, I revisited a sense of place to evoke memory and healing through visualising the landscape as a visceral experience for the body and soul. Early Romanticists wanted to showcase nature and that alone with no need for validation. Romantic work can be best described as impressionistic as they send a message of what the viewer should expect to see in a real-life scenario. “The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images” (Debord, 2009). This aims to create feelings of nostalgia that each viewer can adapt to their own lives as a realisation of growth and healing. This body of work explores romanticism and sublime theory in order to document the emotions that are elicited while being present in a personal and emotional landscape. The acknowledgement that what surrounds us isn’t something to be understood but to be admired. I wanted to focus on the importance of nature and its ability to form a narrative that coincides with the potential struggles of day to day life. Placing the images together as a final body of work however forms a narrative connection/approach and this allows the viewer to wonder, without knowing, if this connection is relevant to each individual. However, considering Sublime theory and how it deems the landscape as fearful, terrifying and moody, not only because of its physical appearance but because of the unpredictability of nature also, has continuously informed my practice and how the messages I create with my imagery are received. The use of signs can be interpreted differently depending on the reader of the sign and this can be explained using Saussure and Peirce’s theory of extracting meaning from a sign by understanding the structure. By exploring the contrast between what we see in an image to the connections made between the mind and body.

 

Following the diagnosis of my Dad’s Cancer in 2012, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. In the midst of life changing news, I was keen to get out of the house as an escape from reality. I longed for somewhere quiet and isolated where I would sit for hours trying to process the new abundance of thoughts and emotions occupying my mind. I associated nature with feelings of relief and understanding which in turn marked the beginning of my fascination with the connection I had formed with the landscape. On an old mobile phone at the time, I wanted to document what I was seeing in a more permanent way that was tangible and pinpointed a moment in time. 

 

Developing from previous projects such as “Rorschach” where I I believed in allowing the viewer to interpret what an image means is an important condition/contract between the artist and the viewer. Creating recognisable details and as a viewer at first, I only see how they were created. I recognise the technique. As I look deeper into them and attempt to dismiss what I know, I begin to see repetition and pattern. "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me"- Rorschach, which I admire because of its simplicity and curiosity as to who is saying what. Either way, we are locked with nature and this should be embraced.

 

Naming my latest project as ‘Pictorialandscape’ was due to the fact that I wanted my images to be tranquil and pictorial to encounter an emotional connection with nature because of the mood and emotion of the landscape. Receiving feedback from other artists throughout this project has allowed me to adapt my practice in preparation for the industry. Creating photographs based off ideas that have many different paths I could venture down is difficult when there is so much going on that you can’t explain. Being able to visualise nature the way I see myself is the major theme of the whole project. How a tree can look vulnerable using moody tones and framing, similar to how an individual can feel convinced they are vulnerable and damaged. The links that I make and the connections I have established between mind and body shows experimentation, development, adaptation and resilience. For not only does the tree appear vulnerable, it also stands strong and tall during it’s otherwise bare season. I want the viewer, not just myself, to feel invited into embracing one’s true self. “Bear with me”, “be patient with me”, “all will be revealed, in time” are just a few descriptions I have had from clients or companies of interest.

 

Moving forward in my career, I have been considering numerous directions and uses for my photographs in a wider context. One of these options is to network in and around the area of art therapy as a use of expressionism within therapeutic photography practice. I have been working with ‘The One Project’, an organisation based around using art as a process of healing, particularly from mental illnesses. This not only gave me some insight into how others were viewing and receiving my photographs, but it also provided me with an alternative publishing platform for my work to progress into. 

 

Photojournalism is a possible industry context for work like mine, speaking truth through imagery and raising awareness with my photographs. My practice is well-informed at this point in my career; exploring different mediums, capturing subjects from different metaphorical angles brought about by continuous research into theory and ideas. Having work published in landscape magazines is another area I have started to concentrate on as well, reaching out to publications by sending my current refined body of work to them not only to network but to receive feedback and information about other possible companies seeking work that coincides with my practice. Being published in a gallery, exhibition, article etc is obviously the end goal, like it is for any newly graduated artist but I am making every attempt to get my work seen and noticed not only for my own success but as a wider project that raises awareness for mental health.