“This photographic project investigates anxiety within young females living in the UK, exploring the feelings and emotions that occur when an individual becomes anxious or experiences an anxiety attack.”

Hi Nicole – tell us about your project

“It is motivated by a desire to provide recognition for anxiety sufferers on the physical and emotional impact that living with anxiety disorder can have on their daily lives.”

Anxiety is a pervasive emotion and often regarded in association to other mental health disorders. However the purpose of this study is to highlight anxiety as a solitary condition that’s effects can frequently be overlooked due to lack of knowledge of the disorder”

Through one-to-one interviews participants have been offered an opportunity to enact their feelings about anxiety and talk about the emotional impact that it has on their lives. The project explores the hidden qualities and unspoken feelings associated with the disorder in order to support the creation of authentic representations that facilitate the expression of feelings induced by anxiety that may otherwise be difficult to communicate through words.”

Photography is an expressive tool that can be used to investigate and explore significant aspects of the society in which we live. Photographs have the exceptional capability to expose meaningful details that are not always initially obvious.

What have you found?

“The findings of this project have detailed the personal experiences of individuals with anxiety offering insight as to how the disorder affects different people in various ways. This project has also demonstrated a deeper analysis of the triggers of anxiety and the way that societal pressures may have an impact on individuals feeling of anxiousness. A portfolio of images has been created to depict authentic representations of anxiety’s physical and emotional affect on the individual in an attempt to enlighten the audience of the experience anxiety sufferers face and to evoke an emotional response from the audience.”

Nicole is graduating from our Media Studies BA(Hons)