Photo taken by first-time contributor Quenby Sheree, a 32-year-old woman from Daytona, Florida, who has struggled with chronic anxiety disorder throughout her life. She was finally properly diagnosed at the age of 15 when her illness became too difficult to manage and she dropped out of the 8th grade with plans of suicide. For about three years she only left the house for therapy sessions and was heavily medicated. Eventually she became healthy enough to get her GED and attend a small community college where she discovered a passion for photography. Since the school she was attending didn’t offer a degree in photography she transferred to one across the country that did. Now she has an A.S. in Photographic Technology from the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies where she has been invited back several times to lecture. She is the founder and curator of the photography blog, Curating the Unseen, where she helps other artists get their work seen around the world.
About this photo: “I took this self portrait, titled “Agoraphobia”, as a class assignment in photography school. At the time I was unwilling to share my mental illness with others even though I was mentally healthy enough to pass for “normal” (at least in an art school), so I ended up turning in a different photo. But I have always felt a strong connection to this image and it remains one of my favorites.“
Find more from Quenby at her website.
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