The Hysteria Project

I began The Hysteria Project in 2021 with a self-portrait collage of my uterus out of analog ccameraless c-prints of lace, mounted on a metal leaf background. I was frustrated with the way I’d had my concerns with my health dismissed at various points over the course of decades. I made more portraits as people told me their diagnoses and symptoms, researching what each diagnosis looked like, interpreting it through my own visual language. Over time, I came to realize that the conversations I was having with people were as important as the collages themselves. I began recording their stories, creating a website to archive their stories and the collages. When we experience pain or excessive bleeding regarding menstruation, it is often disregarded, and treated as normal by the medical field. Menstrual problems such as endometriosis are often passed down, but if a mother doesn’t realize that the massive pain and heavy bleeding that she experienced is abnormal, it is likely that her child will think it is something that just must be endured, instead of something that should be treated. These issues, plus cultural biases that lead to less funding for research in these areas, mean that there is a gap in our cultural awareness about menstruation and the problems around it. People need to be heard. The Hysteria Project bears witness to stories of people who menstruate about their experiences with this crucial aspect of our lives.