Be Still My Melancholy

In life everybody experiences ups and downs. Mental health has always been viewed as a taboo subject, the elephant in the room that nobody wants to confront. This topic of navigating through good and bad times is something that needs to be normalized and talked about more. That is why I make this work.

In the body of work, Be Still My Melancholy, I document and visualize the feelings that I have faced during different times in my life with my own mental health. The images are staged and illustrate the brutal reality of escapism, the way that people will do everything to seek distraction from pain in secret instead of talking about it. This is something that society has programmed inside of humans. These staged images represent mental health as a whole; times where things are smooth sailing with sunshine and hope. Contrasted with times where your mind becomes your worst enemy in battle, and you feel alone. Pills, gauze, rope, and literal visual interpretations captured by my camera allow me to talk about my internal struggles. I continue this work in the hope of providing solace for others who are suffering or have suffered with the same feeling. Showing them it is okay to not always feel okay, and that the ups and downs of mental health is a topic that needs to be understood and talked about more.

Kristina Leszczak, 2020