I have been working on this project for 12 years, since 2010. It started when I became housebound with a chronic illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). I’ve had ME/CFS for 17 years, or since I was 21. But it has gradually become more and more severe and in 2010 I became housebound.
I could no longer go walking outside, so I could no longer make the kinds of photographs I was inspired to make.
But in 2010 I realized that my story of living with such a severe chronic illness for which there was no cure was the exact kind of story I would be inspired to photograph if I was healthy, and that I could photograph myself.
It was revelatory for me because not only was I able to make portraits again, but since I was the subject, I was able to decide to let the camera into my life completely without question, which is any photographer’s dream.
I never thought of these images as self portraits. I started making them as a photographer who finally gained access to a great subject. I call them "documentary photographs of myself".
This work represents images from 2010-2013 when I was housebound and then had to move in with my parents, and images from 2020-2022 when I was bedridden but recovered enough from an experimental drug to use my computer and, phone and then a DSLR again. I was extremely sick from 2013-2020 and I could not use a phone or computer so could not work on the project during this time.
