Overcoming Mental Illness

One of my pet peeves about suffering from bipolar/depression is the constant judgement I receive for being a depressing man. I do not view myself as a depressing man, nor do I view myself as depressed. To say I am “depressed” or “depressing” is labelling me with the illness I suffer from. It would be like labelling someone with cancer as “cancerous” or simply “cancered”. My illness does not define me, nor should it label who I am or my personality, but on so many occasions and by so many people (who could be described as ignorant) it does.

Depression is my illness, not my personality! Just as cancer is something someone has, bipolar/depression are things I have, and not am. (i.e. I have bipolar, I am not bipolar.)

Whilst writing a blog on mental illness it is difficult sometimes for people to get to know the real me, as often I am merely writing about how these illnesses have and are affecting me. In this first post of a planned series I hope to start showing people who I really am by exploring some of the idiosyncrasies and passions which make my blood bubble and my mind explode with pseudo-orgasmic delight.

Photography

I’ve been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. Now I’ve never considered myself to be a great photographer, but I will admit to thinking that some of the photos I’ve taken are great. I’ll not actually say which ones (that you’ll have to work out for yourself) but I do like my work enough to be incredibly proud of the images I’ve taken.

I’ve gone through so many cameras in my life, far too many to actually remember them all. I went through all sorts of dodgy 35mm and disposable ones when I was but a mere babe, even a couple of APS (remember those) when I was a teen. Of course as the bug continued to bite I graduated to a wonderful beast of an Olympus OM2 which took me through my photography course and then a glorious Minolta Dynax 5 which I was obsessed with for years and was the artifact which hurt me the most when I lost it last year.

If I had to choose a particular field of photography I’m most obsessed with, it would be people. With is a bit of a misnomer really as this is the field I have dabbled in the least - an unfortunate side effect of social anxiety. When I say people I mean portraiture, body abstract and nude; I take so much pleasure photographing the beauty and wonder of the human figure it really does make me explode with pseudo-orgasmic delight, or in the cases when I have dabbled in this field, pre-orgasmic delight ;)

[I can't show you those though!]

So instead here’s a small selection of my work:

And some work from photographers whom I admire greatly (some you’ll know, others you may not) and is a mix of all sorts of genres; landscape, portraits, candid, humorous, arcitechture, nude and abstract:

If you fancied checking out more of my photos I have a blog called Stray Thoughts Photography which is added to every now and then showcasing over a decades worth of photos - good and bad (!) Hopefully one day I will resume taking photographs; one of the most relaxing and inspiring past-times I know, and one which I’ve missed greatly.  

Other posts in this series are:
Faerie Art