"On the Surface"

Large parts of the world's population have pain in one form or another, it can be physical pain or psychological. Depression, anxiety, loneliness and illness or just coping with being human. According to the WHO, around 1 billion people struggle mentally on a global basis and the number is rising. More than 600 people commit suicide each year in Norway (fhi). Two out of three are men. Everyone will experience pain in one form or another throughout their lives, pain is something that is often difficult to describe and especially if you have diseases that are not so well known such as Endometriosis, ME or Rheumatism.

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Through the photo series "On the surface" I have researched and explored my own pain and others. I have spoken to people who have experienced pain in various ways to try to gain an understanding of their situation. I myself have experienced internal pain after episodes of panic attacks, and one thing I have learned after years of therapy is that no feeling is unique. In addition, I know many people who have felt different kinds of pain both through illness and mental disorders. Several of the people I have spoken to struggle with the fact that others don't understand or believe them when they tell them about their condition, many are taken for being lazy because the pain is not visible to the eye.

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Pain is in many ways abstract and something that doesn’t t necessarily show. In this project, I have focused on just that, the invisible pain. The photo series has been an investigation into how one can visualize something one cannot see.