In "Body. Mind. Land" I explore interrelationship between physical and mental well-being, as well as the impact of the environment on health in relation to my own lived experience of recovery from depression.
The work is made of three interconnected parts: Body, Mind and Land, which explain each respective concept in detail.
Body
Being depressed I spent most of the time laying in bed. It's the place where I felt not as miserable. The photographs which make this chapter were made in my bed, and refer to the common symptom of depressed people - inability to get out of bed.
Mind
Microscope images of neurons were used as an inspiration for the creation of this artwork. It represents a depressed mind. Lifeless, damaged, decaying, unsaturated dried plants depict the harm of depression to the brain, as well as translate the melancholic mood. However, as there is a promise of recovery from the disease, flowers also symbolise hope.
Land
Being connected to nature has been meaningful to me since I was a child. I grew up in a rural area surrounded by wild grasses, crops and woods. When I started feeling daunted by depression, retreats into nature added a new purpose: self-replenishment. No matter how terrible I was feeling, after a walk in a park or by the seashore, I felt restored and the spark of feeling alive was reignited. Often I was taking a camera with me, and I was photographing whatever caught my attention on the way. I kept doing this exercise during and post-depression. In this way, pictures of nature refer to these therapeutic walks and represent different moods and states of mind I experienced at the time of photographing them.
