Photo taken by contributor Carrie Hilgert, a photographer and painter from Northeast Kansas who has been 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: “When it’s foggy and you’re tired and going one more step seems like the hardest thing in the world, reach out. We are here to help each other keep our flames lit. And if you feel like you have no one to reach out to, here’s a little flame for you from me. Because when it’s foggy it’s hard to see. We just need to slow down a bit and take some extra time. That’s a gift you can give yourself.”

Find more from Carrie at her website.

_____

**Visit Broken Light’s main gallery here ▸ Now a 501(c)3 non-profit! Please donate here.

*Facebook & Twitter @BrokenLighCo & @DanielleHark. Follow for e-mail notifications.