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leeyip · 2 years

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IRIS

“Iris” was my first photographical body of work where I explored and documented my running battle with CPTSD (undiagnosed at the time). This photo series provides a small insight into the isolation that accompanied this silent disorder which I documented for a period of two years. This series began when I moved to China from the UK following a job opportunity. This big cultural change put me in a place where I had to face a number of dormant and reoccurring internal issues that I had been struggling with for most of my life.

Mental illness as I have come to known is less quantifiable and more qualitative in nature than physical illness, which makes it harder to be noticed or treated. This element of “invisibility” that is attached to mental illness was a challenging journey to explore. At the time, I was not even aware about the repercussions and symptoms of my CPTSD; all I did know was that my day to day was filled with a heavy sense of alienation, shame and grief. During this period, I found deep solace in my point and shoot (Ricoh GR2). I was constantly trying to capture moments, especially when a flashback was triggered and I was stuck in a hypervigilant or dissociative state. In hindsight, I believe I was desperately trying to understand myself by documenting my life through a visual language, so that I could finally “see” the “invisible”.

I explored snapshot as a style, documenting mundane but highly personal moments. There is an underlying sense of heaviness and vulnerability to the images which I mostly captured in a homemade and improvised manner. Hopefully, this series can give a glimpse into what the quiet drowning of mental illness looks like and provide a small insight about the importance of recognizing and supporting this lonely journey that so many of us suffer from.

#Iris #CPTSD #Mental Health #Photography #China #Guangzhou #Ricoh GR #Art

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leeyip · 2 years

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