Reluctant Warrior

Photo taken by contributor Carrie Hilgert, a photographer and painter in her thirties from Northeast Kansas who was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After venturing into digital photography, she became interested in documenting her life with self portraits. This became particularly helpful when her life started to fall apart due to depression. All her other creative outlets left her, but she could always process her very dark feelings with self portraits. While she is doing much better now, she maintains compassion for those going through these hard things and hopes that her photography can give an honest insight into something that makes most people feel very isolated and alone.

About this photo: “This is from a series I did expressing my urge to fight and be strong. In the midst of all the stronger images, this one emerged and struck me as one that is probably more true than the rest. The hesitancy in finding that warrior. The vulnerability in taking a risk. Is this who I really am? Will I be laughed out of town? Will I be spotted as a fraud? These are the voices to fight against.”

Find more from Carrie at her blog or flickr.

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