1 page paper on Edward Honaker

Edward Honaker was just 19 when he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. His dreamy, dark, scary, like photos show an inside view to what mental illness really feels and looks like. I think what drew me into his work the most was that I also struggle with depression and anxiety, so I can relate to his images on a personal level. But, even if I did not meet this at a personal level, I believe one can also relate just by how perfect he captures his images. The three series images that caught my attention to me the most after looking up his name and story. The three photos are the ones of him drowning, falling, and laying flat on the bed. This tri-series photographs are ones that I related to the most. When someone struggles with depression and anxiety it constantly feels like you are free falling or drowning. Depression is an isolating illness, lonely and confusing. Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn't work properly, it's scary. (Edward Honaker, Huffington post, 2015) The way Edward caught each of the three moments blew me away. My first thought when viewing these photographs was, "how did he take a self portrait and capture that single moment?" That question was one that led to many. My next thought on the photo was asking myself if he used photoshop, but even if he did, how did he create such an effective photo for the background. Another thing that drew me into these photos was the use of black and white. This made the tri-series effective on his part because with mental illness, everything becomes colorless, everything becomes dark. All of Edward's work really met with me on a personal level, but the other piece of work that caught my attention was of the two photos of him. The one on the bottom is him with his face covered by a rag like material and a rope around his neck. The top photo is a picture of balloons attached to a rope that have been let go into the sky. Technically when I look at this I think he either used a spot light that went directly onto him or flash when capturing the photo. He either had a self-timer or someone take the picture of him a well. For the top photo of the balloons, I question how he did this technically. I assume he just bought some helium balloons and tied them to a rope and went outside on a nice day and snapped the photo. Visually, this photo screams mental illness. It almost screams the two sides of life, hell and heaven. This is why I believe he chose these two photos. The bottom describes his depression and thoughts of suicide as if he is living in a hell like environment, while the tops shows balloons flying into the air, almost like trying to get to heaven, where everyone wants to go. Each photo that Edward has taken within his life shows his immense struggle with mental illness. The decision to make his photos black and white really help the viewer understand the dark and dullness of depression and anxiety. With my photos that I took of myself and others, I wanted create that "darkness" of mental illness. Not just the ones Edward suffered with, but all of them. I tried to create images that would make the viewer question "why" or "what" about them. All of my photo ideas came from the inspiration of capturing mental illness through a lens. So when one looks at my images for the portrait assignment, one can look back to Edward Honaker, a photographer known for his beautiful, yet dark images in mental illness.