One of the photographers I chose to research for the collaborative project is Edward Honaker, a photographer who has done previous work based around mental health more specifically how it effected him. The work he did based around the mental health subject focused on his clash with depression with numerous self-portrait photography works in different areas and placing himself in a variety of different poses.

These images in their own way manage to showcase the depressive state of Edward Honaker by using different techniques to place him a blurry non identifiable state. All the photos are coloured in Black and White as there is nothing colourful about depression.

The first image places Edward Honaker in a room facing a mirror. The first thing to notice about this image is how Edward blurred his face in the mirror, this can be interpreted as a means of showing Edward’s depressive state forcing him to not even be capable of looking at himself in the mirror, a result of just how bad the issues with his mental health is. I like the simplicity of this image and how it’s able to convey the message of Edward’s mental health issue just by blurring out his face.

Edward Honaker’s next image in his depression series involves him lying on top of a messed up bed with a lamp on outside the photo. A way to interoperate this in his depression series is on how this signifies how tired and down Edward is as he is lying on the bed fully clothed. Something that can be seen as a side effect of Edward’s depression and how it hinders his mental health. I really like on how Edward kept his lighting to a minimum for this shot only showing enough of himself and the bed while covering the rest in the dark as it serves as a visual metaphor for his depressive state.

Next up is Edward Honaker’s third image that involves him lying in a bath tub that is fully covered in soap. The way this establishes a visual image of the effects of mental health issues is by covering Edward in so much soap in the water that you can only see a small amount of his body in the shot. This is a way to show on how he wants to hide himself by blending in and not being acknowledged by anyone. The bright lighting makes this work as it makes the image bright enough that Edward’s body nearly blends with the soap he is bathing under.

The last image of Edward Honaker’s depression series of photos is this image of him simply sitting on a chair but his face is once again similar to the 1st image, blurred out of view. The way his face is blurred out showcases desperation as it clearly shows his head is moving all over the place indicating that he is desperately looking for help. A simple but effective way of showing how people struggle to locate the necessary aid required in dealing with mental health issues which causes this problem to keep occurring.