Silenced

"you just want attention. go slit your wrists." over a year ago, someone left this comment in my honesty box on facebook. i told my friends, trying to turn it into a joke, but the fact that i have remembered it this long is proof that it got to me. it wasn't the fact that someone didn't like me that bothered me. i've never been tremendously popular, and i don't feel the need to be as i have a few close friends who mean the world to me. it's the fact that our society considers this an acceptable thing to say. to anyone. ever.

this kind of thing is said to people who are going through something huge. listen to how people who self-harm are ridiculed as "emo kids". people who are in enough emotional distress to hurt themselves should NOT be mocked for it. these words are said to people dealing with eating disorders. they are said to people with addictions and to people trapped in abusive relationships. and because talking about these issues gets people labeled as attention whores, they stay silent and are unable to get the help they need. they tell themselves that maybe they are being oversensitive. that maybe this isn't important.

but it is. people who try to get help for these things are brave, and we can't just brush them off. we have to be able to listen, and to trust. because when a person talks about these kind of experiences, they are baring their soul to you. defenseless. verbally attacking someone when they are in such a state can be enough to tear them apart. it worries me more than i can explain to think that if i had received that message a few years earlier, when i was dealing with a lot of problems in my life, i might have taken its advice.

the first photo of my 'out loud' series. the goal of this collection is to highlight themes which we in our culture are uncomfortable addressing. ideas that run our lives not in spite of, but because of no one talking about them. what goes on behind closed doors, behind closed eyes, inside closed minds. the mantras we repeat over and over and over in our heads, but would never dare to say out loud. it's confessional, cathartic, personal. it's political. it's the lives of your friends and family, of strangers, and maybe of you. it is the most challenging photography concept i have ever taken on.

this is real.