This work is driven by the desire to explore relationships with mental illness. My goal is to further our understanding by addressing social stigmas and through investigating my own hopes and fears surrounding mental disorders. An important factor in presenting my experiences is to discount predominantly negative and one-sided depictions of mentally ill people. The complexities of living with a mental disorder are acknowledged by allowing dichotomies and subtle distinctions to exist throughout the work. The photographs that emerge act as manifestations of the feelings, ideas and impulses I have in response to these issues.
The focus for this project has been shaped largely by the experiences I?ve had growing up in a suburban town, in a family that has gone through pleasures and terrors as all families do. Specifically because of encounters with death and depression in my immediate family, I am drawn to looking at the psychology that is associated with these occurrences, and the role our culture plays in influencing our outlook on them. Growth and life eventually stem from the darkest moments, and I am interested in remarking on the interplay that exists between these two places. I find that my desire to investigate these experiences ultimately stems from my own memories, and my wish to shed insight and light on a shadowed subject.
Rachael Woodson was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1984 to a Scottish mother and an American father. The small family left for the United States a year and a half later, and after several moves and the births of her sister and two brothers, she grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, twelve miles west of New York City. A hand me down Canon AE-1 sparked her interest in photography during high school, and her subjects from the start were family members. After the sudden death of her father when she was sixteen, the photographic concept (specifically the photograph?s ability to preserve intimate moments) became increasingly significant. Rachael attended the School of Visual Arts (BFA, Photography 2006) where she felt most inspired photographing back in the suburbs, and concentrated on eliciting emotional insights from both subject and viewer. During her years studying in New York, as well as a semester at l??cole Nationale Sup?rieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the work developed as she began to rely more heavily on intuition and portraying the universal psychological experience. Rachael currently is part of a critique group of other photography graduates, and has recently exhibited at the Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea. She works as a volunteer and teacher with several mental health organizations in New York, and her immediate family continues to serve as her muse.
