Broken Light: A Photography Collective
We are photographers living with or affected by mental illness; supporting each other one photograph at a time. Join our community, submit today!
Gods and Monsters
Please say hello to first-time contributor Mike Cullen, a photographer based in Brooklyn, NY, who specializes in abstract and impressionistic landscapes. After a few decades of working in the photo industry, Mike decided it was finally time to move from the business and editing side over to the creative. He’s been working on an extensive series of images that share some common stylistic threads: they’re blurry, there are no people, the subject matter is kept at some distance, and yet the colors are fairly vibrant. It wasn’t until much later (and many photographs) that he was diagnosed with depression. After his diagnosis, when he looked back on his work, he realized that these images were a manifestation of the illness. The out-of-focus, lonely, people-less world he had been photographing wasn’t in the park down the street. It was in him.
About this photo: “The two images above are called, “Gods and Monsters” (the darker one) and “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”. These images were shot earlier in 2014 using a panoramic pinhole camera onto 35mm film, then extensively tinkered with in Photoshop. I find that it’s not until I have a chance to closely examine and work on the images on my desktop that I can get a sense of what my subconscious is telling me; these two seem to bookend each other with dark and light, yet still offer a distorted take on reality.”
Find more from Mike at his website.
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Reblogged this on The Man of Letters and commented:
Love this…
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Fascinating images. Well done!
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such interesting photos. I also suffer with major depression and general anxiety disorder and find creating and photo work very helpful in keeping it at bay as best as possible.
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I very much like your work, imaginative and interesting. Wish you well in your future endeavours with this creative field of work…Karen
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Wow! Absolutely brilliant work!
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I like them very much. Obviously all your experience has served you well, and you’re able to go beyond it at the same time.
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