Social Anxiety Photography

A social anxiety photography project is something I have been planning for a while; A series of photographs depicting my interpretation of Social Anxiety.

As some of you may know already I have suffered with this disorder since I was in nappies.

Social interaction has always been a struggle and words can’t describe how debilitating it can be sometimes. Having overcome the majority of my anxiety, I still have days where it pulls me down and sucks me into the darkness I have strived to avoid.

This is the start of my project, a hopefully continuing self evaluation of what I go through on a daily basis.

The feel of these images are different to my usual photography, giving them a film like finish and keeping them as natural and untouched as possible.

Mental illness is raw, it’s emotional, it’s untamed and this is how I wanted it to be portrayed.

These images depict the loneliness, the side effects, the exhaustion.

With this one, I wanted to show what it’s like to be stuck at home because of social anxiety and to be so constantly anxious that you can’t even open your post or open the door to anyone…

In this image I wanted to capture how easy it is for me to get stuck inside and never leaving my computer because it’s my safe place. As soon as I dropped out of school at 14 because of social anxiety, I spent hours upon hours at my computer, learning how to code amongst other things.

This photo is about how it feels when your hair starts falling out due to the stress your body is under when you experience social anxiety. 

This image is meant to symbolise the depression and loneliness that comes with having social anxiety. I used cotton wool as a rain cloud above my head.

I used a bag over my head to show the frustration, pain and embarrassment you feel when you have social anxiety. Sometimes you want to disappear rather than face going through it over and over again.

I hope you enjoyed my social anxiety photography project. I welcome any ideas you may have for future photos. 

You can also click on these links to follow my family photography or my horror photography work.