Iain Laidlow for ModPod
Mental illness isn’t always easy to see
Iain was the winner of a competition he worked with the brief and idea that ‘one in five Australian men will experience a mental illness in 2012, with the prevalence higher among young people. Yet the problem is unspoken and swept under the rug. Not until we start talking about mental illness will individual expression…’ Laidlow is an amateur photographer who takes photographs for personal pleasure.
I enjoyed the work of Laidlow as I was able to see the process of his images where he shows his different text placement ideas and the methods of his progression.
Laidlow’s photographs are about visualising mental illness. He uses materials to show what a mental illness can look like. My favourite image was the one with black fluffy balls as it looked as if the mental illness was growing out of his models face and this is the image I used to create my own image in the style of his work.
His images are portrait and focus on the faces of the males however the bright colours of some of the images draw the viewer’s eyes in directly to the illness before then taking the time to analyse the rest of the image. Having plain backgrounds allowed the model to be the focus and it helped to emphasise the colours of the mental illnesses.
Overall I can describe the artwork as thought provoking. The main element of the photograph is the created illusion of “mental illness”. My initial thought was “what’s on his face?” and I soon learnt that it was an infestation of a mental illness.
The concept of the images resemble that which Koh had however rather than showing how she feels Laidlow instead showed what having a mental illness could look like, he makes the issue visible. The story that he tries to tell is that mental illness is not as obviously seen as black fluff balls growing on your face and it will not be identified if not spoken
about.
I really like the green and black images as it looked like fungus’ growing out of the human face and this made the images more real for me.
I enjoyed the work of Laidlow as I was able to see the process of his images where he shows his different text placement ideas and the methods of his progression.
Laidlow’s photographs are about visualising mental illness. He uses materials to show what a mental illness can look like. My favourite image was the one with black fluffy balls as it looked as if the mental illness was growing out of his models face and this is the image I used to create my own image in the style of his work.
His images are portrait and focus on the faces of the males however the bright colours of some of the images draw the viewer’s eyes in directly to the illness before then taking the time to analyse the rest of the image. Having plain backgrounds allowed the model to be the focus and it helped to emphasise the colours of the mental illnesses.
Overall I can describe the artwork as thought provoking. The main element of the photograph is the created illusion of “mental illness”. My initial thought was “what’s on his face?” and I soon learnt that it was an infestation of a mental illness.
The concept of the images resemble that which Koh had however rather than showing how she feels Laidlow instead showed what having a mental illness could look like, he makes the issue visible. The story that he tries to tell is that mental illness is not as obviously seen as black fluff balls growing on your face and it will not be identified if not spoken
about.
I really like the green and black images as it looked like fungus’ growing out of the human face and this made the images more real for me.