Olivia Murphy

Consider how Photography can be used to illustrate emotions and mental health.
Compare and contrast the work of Edward Honaker and Christian Sampson.
There are many ways in which photography can be used to illustrate emotion and mental
health. These include distortion, documentation, portraiture or even landscapes. The most
likely main goal is for others to relate or for the photographers to give themselves a way to
escape.
Edward Honaker turned to photography to cope with his own mental illnesses- depression
and anxiety- and his photographs about this are all self-portrait style images. Honaker's face
is either covered or distorted in all the images so that his features cannot be seen. His aim for
this was to symbolise the helplessness that someone suffering from a mental illness feels
without writing about it or explaining the images. I think that his images do exactly this
because they mask his identity but even without showing his face, it can clearly be seen that
he has been taken over by this fear and depression through the space in the images around
him, the haunting mix of feeling nothing yet being terrified and trapped. Honaker notes that
for him, the process of taking these photographs was extremely therapeutic and helped him a
great deal when coping with his depression. He said 'your mind is who you are and when it
doesn't work, it's scary' and his work screams out when you look at it due to the clear
personal meaning thats behind it.
Christian Sampson used his friends to create his series of photographs for various mental
illnesses after he began to take part in a photography class. Basic research of what began with
cancer and physical health issues resulted in work that breathtakingly summarises what it
feels like to have a certain illness that isnt physical but takes over the mind with just one
image. Sampson wanted to potentially aid those with a mental illness by helping the people
who stigmatise them to empathise. Pain is seen in the body language and also what can be

Olivia Murphy

seen of their faces- which shows that a photographers aim isnt always what they felt like in
the moment they were planning and taking the photo, but how other people feel when looking
at the end result. Christian Sampson himself was seeing other people trying to cope with a
mental illness. Sampson also explores with split-focus depth of field effects which shows of
the differing focus that someone with a mental health issue may have, through the two areas
of focus.
Photography can be used to illustrate emotions and mental health in many ways. One of these
is something that Edward Honaker and Christian Sampsons images have in common- the
colours used. Both photographers have edited all their images that relate to mental health into
black and white, which could be a metaphor for how people with mental illnesses only see
either the positives or the negatives. They feel either really good or really upset/empty.
However, Honakers images are not as heavy in contrast as Sampsons. Instead, they have
clear black, white and grey tones. This firstly shows the emotions that photography
illustrates- the sadness and darker emotions can be seen a lot clearly when an image is not in
colour because it mutes them down to a simpler state. Personally, if a photograph is in black
and white, it evokes me to concentrate on the person/object within the image more than one
of bright colours, which can take the concentration of the viewer away from the subject as
there is more to take in. Christian Sampsons images have darker black tones in them, to me
this signifies that he feels angrier toward mental illnesses because black is an angry/negative
colour. This could perhaps be because he does not experience any mental health issues
himself but is an eye witness to other peoples sufferings, where he would be able to see the
effects a lot more clearly.
Another way in which photography illustrates mental illness and emotions is through
distortion of the images. This can either be done post taking the images on Photoshop or done
using different techniques with a camera. Christian Sampson and Edward Honaker seem to

Olivia Murphy

both edit their images digitally, on Photoshop or the like. But, there are few images
Honakers series where he adjusts a physical copy of the image. This image is an example of
this, as it shows a man dressed formally, turned sideways from
the camera. This picture would look like something out of a
magazine if it wasnt for the distortion to the face, as the model
looks like they are posing for a fashion shoot. The light quality in
this image is very professional and this makes it look very clean
cut and perfect as the quality is sharp which makes the image
look more pleasing to look at. However, straight away the
viewers eyes are drawn in to the face of Honaker- which he must have printed onto glossy
photo paper- like the original image print and cut it into even rectangular strips to hide his
identity, without losing the outline of his face. Parts of the main features of Honakers face
such as his eye, ear and lips can be seen clearly in the image, but in the wrong place. This
could give insight to the personal context in the image which is the photographers own
feelings at the time: the struggle of not feeling anything due to his depression, and loosing
who he is. This burst of raw emotion and thoughts seems to slap the viewer- its provokes a
quick reaction from them. But, when thinking about how long it took Honaker to achieve this
outcome, he would have tortured himself with this idea, cutting the rectangular strips from
another copy of the image, arranging them in order for the viewer to be puzzled from looking
at it.
Christian Sampsons work falls into the category of realism, which was his main intention, as
he wanted to show people what it really meant to be suffering with a mental health issue. His
work did more than this, as he notes that his own understanding about the taboo topic was
heightened whilst researching for this project. Whereas, Edward Honakers is more
expressionism, as it was an outlet for his own demons and something he did whilst seeking

Olivia Murphy

help for his depression. His work shows his struggle through the many environments that he
has to face and this leads on to my next point of contrast between the photographers; the
process of taking their photographs and what can be seen in them. Firstly, Sampsons process
included having to gather a friend to pose for him, due to not being able to afford
professional models (which, in my opinion would have made his photographs impact less,
due to the too-perfect looking model and the lack of relationship between the model and
photographer.) He had to gather the materials such as the clocks and measuring tapes, as well
as set up some sort of one-colour backdrop and similar lighting set up each time- hitting the
model to cast a shadow. This differs to Honaker who in quite a few images has used natural
lighting due to the images being taken outside. Honaker is formally dressed in all but two of
his images where his skin is bare, which could be a metaphor for the suicidal thoughts that he
may have experienced during his depression and the fact that he wanted to die. Whereas,
Christian Sampsons models are dressed in casual clothes, jeans and a plain top- perhaps to
make that less of a subject within the images, and to keep the viewers eyes focused on the
surreal / dramatic aspects.
There are a lot of hands incorporated into Sampsons images, either hurting the subject
directly or pulling strings to torture it. To me, this suggests that
Sampson personally feels that the emotion of despair and
suffering is due to others, and there must be an environmental
cause of these mental illnesses- maybe bullying or physical/
emotional abuse. This makes his images look angrier than
Honakers, this emotion is shown the tight vein looking bolts incorporated into most of the
images not only link the series together well but also show that actions break things and cause
suffering. Honakers work looks more soft but this does not make them look positive either
because the emotions in his images is very sombre and dull due to the composition of the

Olivia Murphy

images. In all the pictures which are in portrait orientation, Honaker is in the centre. This
shows how he feels insignificant because the viewer takes in the background as well as him.
Penultimately, a way in which photography can show mental health and emotion is the body
language of the models. In Edward Honakers images, his form is very straight and tense.
This helps show how he is feeling even without seeing the expression on his face, which in
most of the portraits is in my opinion uncomfortable. I see this because he looks to posed and
like he is pretending- which is effective because people with depression and anxiety have to
act like they are fine when they arent. This differs to Christian Sampson, who varies the
body language/emotion in his images. They include terrified models, seen by the crouching
nature, angry models with the raised hands and troubled models with their heads tilted
downward. I believe that body language shows off these because it tells a story without
hearing the models speak, or being able to read their faces.
Looking at the work overall, Honaker features himself in every image and
only one has other people included- his family portrait. Aside from this
image which is also the only one from both artists to have different faces
in the same shot, both photographers are using people of the same age
range which is young adults. This reflects on the emotions and feelings that
photography can show, as a lot of people would agree that it is the
generation of both photographers that is the most empathetic, understanding and nondiscriminative so far, because the modern times that both artists have grown up has a society
that encourages everyone to be accepted regardless of any aspects that vary them from the
norm.

Olivia Murphy

Bibliography
Christian Sampson:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/27/living-with-mental-disorders_n_9089996.html
http://www.christiansampsonphotography.com/
http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2016/04/depiction-of-mental-disorders.html
https://www.facebook.com/christiansampsonphotography/
http://www.storydecker.com/experiments/photographer-researched-on-mental-illness/
http://blackandwhitepandablog.tumblr.com/post/117414417112/christian-sampson-mentalillnesses-insomnia
Edward Honaker
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3240571/Photographer-suffering-depressioncaptures-mental-illness-haunting-series-self-portraits-raise-awareness-disorder.html
http://www.edwardhonaker.com/booktwo/
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF8#q=edward+honaker+depression
http://edwardandrew.tumblr.com/post/86363961861/last-year-i-posted-a-small-series-ofimages-that
http://www.demilked.com/awereness-raising-depression-self-portraits-edward-honaker/