Rose (2010, cited in Mannay 2016) informs us that ‘visual imagery is never innocent; it is always constructed through various practices, technologies and knowledges’.

Mannay (2016) advises:

‘There is a need to adopt a critical approach to reading visual images, one that thinks about the agency of the image, considers the social practices and effects of its viewing, and reflects on the specificity of that viewing by different audiences. As academics we need to question our own readings of images and narratives and in doing so recognise our own ideological commitments and specific ways of knowing.’

Caution, then, is needed in the selection and interpretation of any images used as research data, and in the production of any images resulting from that research, ensuring a true and fair representation of how the groups or individuals being studied perceive their environment – the aim being to evoke an empathic understanding for the alternative ways in which subjects view their world.

Two earlier projects, Cravings and Carousel, have examined alternative relationships with food.

‘Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by restrictive eating and an intense fear of gaining weight. While anorexia is often recognised physically through excessive weight loss, it is a serious mental health problem’ (Mentalhealth.org.uk, 2018).

I want to visually describe the innermost thoughts which characterise this disease and by doing so help raise awareness – informing family and friends of the signs and symptoms which the addictive element of the illness compels anorexics to hide.

In essence, Ana as a Final Major Project will be a way for me to extend my knowledge and understanding, and that of others, through photography.

It is, therefore, my intention to produce a series of images illustrating the world is inhabited by those who suffer from anorexia. What are the factors which trigger anorexia, what factors operate to keep them in their world, and what factors operate to free them?

Importantly, how representative are the images which anorexics consume, seemingly with more enthusiasm than they consume food?

How strongly does the pro-Ana culture feature in the reinforcement of the eating disorder?

Items of food consumed by Marie are portrayed: from the standard-sized nutrient rich portions pre-illness to the sparse, nutrient poor items consumed during the days of her illness before the calorie-dense meals of recovery.

Personal possessions depict her interests and suggest the events that happen in her life.

Notes that she writes for herself, together with images she finds inspirational show the transition from good health to illness, and to recovery.

Research will draw upon the following sources:

Diaries written by recovered anorexics

The strong subculture is associated with anorexia and eating disorders in general

Laia Abril’s Thinspiration

Images of superthin models, images of anonymous anorexics, images taken of themselves by anorexics – the ubiquitous ‘selfie’

Online blogs and pro-Ana websites.

These can be identified as ‘found materials’.

‘In considering what can be found, and made the subject of social science inquiry, there are a plethora of existing visual and textual sources including print media, film, everyday cultural artefacts, personal communications, advertisements, internet, heritage sites and art works. Found materials position social scientists as image and narrative collectors, who then apply theoretical lenses to interrogate, examine and understand these objects of inquiry’ (Mannay, 2016).

What is the justification for my use of such sources?

Woolf (2015) informs us that western society has a problem – the glorification of eating disorders.

‘Even if you’re not actively looking for encouragement with an eating disorder, even if you avoid the internet altogether, you can’t avoid the overwhelming message of our age, that weight loss is good, weight gain is bad, that thinner (harder, leaner, greener) is better. We live in a hypervisual age, with most of us – especially the young – confronting thousands of images every day. The focus on women’s bodies is intense, in every magazine, website or TV advert, on every billboard and celebrity shot, and in the conversations of friends, mothers and sisters around us.

The effect can be profound, and yet still eating disorders are misunderstood. They are dismissed as a teenage, female condition (although male eating disorders are on the increase) or misrepresented as faddy dieting, body hang-ups, a phase they’ll “grow out of”. In fact, the opposite is true: eating disorders are highly addictive, and self-starvation becomes involuntary.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses, more deadly than schizophrenia. One in five anorexics will die, either from physical complications or suicide’.

Wilson et al. (2006, cited in Johnson, 2015) inform us that ‘Pro-eating disorder websites host communities of individuals who engage in disordered eating and use the internet to discuss their activities’.

How prevalent is the use of such websites?

Custers et al (2009, ibid.) found that 12.6% (n = 90) of the girls and 5.9% (n = 42) of the boys from a sample group of 711 children and adolescents (7^th, 9^th, and 11^th) grade had visited pro-anorexia websites.

Furthermore, a separate survey showed that 35.5% of 76 patients who had been treated for eating disorders in an outpatient clinic had visited pro-eating disorder sites (Wilson et al., 2006, cited Johnson, 2015).

There is further justification for using found materials as a data source, rather than generating data through subject participation. Anorexia is an addictive mental illness, and many factors act as triggers, perpetuating the illness: an inadvertent question, or a pertinent question asked inappropriately could trigger.

Furthermore, many anorexics hide their illness – compelled to do so by its addictive element, in some cases the illness is hidden from family and friends for years.

Those that do reach out for help become protected by the rules of patient confidentiality. An established track record of handling research with sensitivity, reverence and discretion is needed before clinicians will even consider approaching patients to volunteer for a research programme.

References

Johnson, Hadley A. (2015) I Will Not Eat – A review of the Online Pro-Ana Movement [Online]. New York: Adelphi University. Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/I-Will-Not-Eat-A-Review-of-the-Online-Pro-Ana-Move-Johnson/b7a8b83bec0e6df021b83d4696ff8ac49c6819c8 (accessed: 09 February 2018)

Mannay, Dawn (2016), Visual, Narrative and Creative Research Methods: Application, Reflection and Ethics. Oxon: Routledge

Mentalhealth.org.uk (2018). ‘Anorexia nervosa’. Available at: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/a/anorexia-nervosa (accessed: 30 January 2018)

WOOLF, Emma (2015). ‘How social media is fuelling the worrying rise in eating disorders’. The Telegraph, 04 June 2015 [online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11649411/How-social-media-is-fuelling-the-worrying-rise-in-eating-disorders.html (accessed: 30 January 2018)

At the start of the Final Major Project module (FMP), there are two options for viable research.

The first is alcoholism, the second is anorexia.

Both provide an opportunity to explore alternative relationships with food.

The initial idea was to produce a body of work based on research into alcoholism, this was the plan for quite some time.

The following are contemporaneous notes made as I externalise my decision to instead focus research on anorexia.

—

Arguably, anorexia, as a theme, is more relatable to food photography than alcoholism.

Food is a necessity, like water and air, we need it to survive.

But what happens when we start to regard food as a prison, trapping us in a body which we don’t want to be in, what happens when the balance of mind is affected?

What happens when our relationship with food turns sour, when food stops being a friend?

—

Jo is a recovered anorexic. She is a keen journalist and her diary keeping covers the period of her illness.

Diary entries record calorific intake and items of food consumed.

Freely admitting that her life has spiralled out of control, she lacks confidence and has low self-esteem.

What she eats is the one aspect of her life that she feels she can control and not eating provides her with a sense of achievement. It also helps her work towards her goal – being thin will lead to her being popular.

Pro-Ana websites have a significant influence upon her illness, and she finds that other users, mostly girls but not exclusively, refer to this as thinspiration and to themselves as ‘rexies’ and regard Ana, the vernacular term used by anorexics for the disease, as an (invisible) friend.

Consequently, the diaries also record phrases and images which were found by Jo to be inspirational.

Jo finds the culture associated with anorexia draws her deeper into a world in which she can be someone, a different person – the person she wants to be.

But this escapism has a price – denial of the reality which is the harm she is doing to her body as she starves herself.

—

Mental illness is heavily stigmatised and stereotyped – much work needs still to be done in educating people and reducing negative perceptions.

This holds true for eating disorders.

Anorexia is not a physical illness. It is a mental illness with visible physical symptoms.

Mental illness is not a taboo, it is not something to be hidden away – the most effective help we can all offer is to bring mental illness, irrespective of type, out into the open.

Such diseases are not something shameful, it is the way society regards mental illness that is shameful.

I believe that as photographers we have a duty to highlight social issues, to raise awareness.

‘Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference’ (Robert Frank)

I find food as a subject for photography enormously aesthetically appealing. The various ways in which we relate to our food fascinates me. Mental illness, how we regard those with mental illness and how we go about their treatment is a subject close to my heart. It is an area of considerable discrimination, ignorance and inadequate resourcing, all of which I have experienced first-hand as partner of, and carer for, someone with mental illness – including an eating disorder.

I want to know more about this mental illness and to understand more.

Jo-Ana is a way for me to extend my knowledge and understanding, and that of others, through photography.

Based on such close personal experience and a desire to further both my understanding and that of others, the project is being undertaken for both emotional and intellectual reasons (Scott, 2014).

I believe that this will be a cathartic process in addition to the outcome being a body of work which may help raise awareness.

—

What is the trigger? Are there multiple triggers?

Is there peer pressure before the influence of pro-Ana websites?

—

What – journal entries of a girl suffering from anorexia

How – still-life images

Why – raise awareness of the link between food and mental health, help remove the stigma associated with mental health issues

Reference

Scott, G. (2014), Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained. Oxon: Focal Press

Penn, 1985. Still Life with Triangle and Red Eraser

Irving Penn’s Still Life with Triangle and Red Eraser (1985) is a collection of largely incongruous, disparate objects.

The subjects, placed on a plain off-white surface, appear to be illuminated by a single light source.

Lighting is harsh with sculpted shadows and an immediate transition from light to dark – a trait seen in many of Penn’s still life images.

Why did Penn produce this image in this way?

The innovative, experimental nature of modernist art is clearly visible in this abstract image.

Characteristic throughout his career, with this still life, Penn is producing new imagery, in a new way for a new age.

As much as I like this image, it jars with me – there is a strong sense of dissonance in this image, I feel that this is largely because of the claustrophobic arrangement of subjects which, touching or overlapping, are left without space in which to breathe.

I don’t think this image, in terms of style, could be further removed from my photographic practice.

The suggestion that I examine the early work of Penn has been made.

Why? Phrased differently, how is this relevant to my photography?

I think the key point is to produce work which takes me away from that with which I feel comfortable, to take my photography in a new direction.

So, on the way to producing my final major project, there will also be some experimental photography.

My intention is to analyse Penn’s images in order to understand the techniques he employed so successfully. I will then endeavour to recreate some of his images before finally producing my own version.

To learn from such a master is first to analyse, then to imitate, then to apply in one’s own creations.