There are two major themes of this project: isolation and struggle. I wanted to depict my subjects as being exhausted by their struggle, so in some photos they are leaning against a wall or have their legs pulled defensively to their chest. I often use ghostly images made with long exposure shots in this project to express the idea that people who are embroiled in a battle with depression are often spectres of their healthy selves. In their isolation caused by depression, they have diminished presence in the spaces they used to inhabit with their classmates, friends, and family. There is also a lot of darkness in these photos that suffocates the inside of the frame to isolate the subject in their space, again to demonstrate this theme of isolation.

 

Depression has been a constant theme in my life in the last year and half as I have witnessed many people around me struggle. Those who struggle with depression can assume that they are alone, that nobody cares if they live or die and that there is no way out of their pain. I have seen friends fight these battles alone, often telling nobody and locking themselves into their rooms and locking friends out of their lives. However, whatever the cause of this sort of loneliness and isolation, it takes two things to remain: the person to say nothing and for us not to listen. The fight happens behind closed doors, and it is the responsibility for the afflicted to reach out and for us to momentarily put our own problems to the side to grab their hands and pull them through to the other side.