migraineland offers an intimate glimpse into my life as an everyday hallucinaIntor, or to put it another way, a sufferer of the neurological condition known as migraine with aura. Although the most widely understood symptom of migraine is a blinding headache, there are many other symptoms ranging from visual disturbances to food cravings, vertigo, anxiety and mood swings.
As a photographer, I am endlessly fascinated by exploring ways to represent the invisible, the seemingly unphotographable. Bursts of phosphorescent colour and intricate patterns can invade my field of vision without warning during migraine aura. In this work I used dry pigments to tint digital black and white prints as an intervention, I attempted to recreate the at times kaleidoscopic and unpredictable urban landscape in which I live. Inkjet prints, many of them self portraits, were made on cotton rag paper and coloured with chalk pastels applied in translucent layers allowing the photo to show through.
The project employs the methodologies of self-portraiture and photomontage to explore all four stages of a migraine journey from the initial trigger phase, and aura through to attack and recovery. The Migraine Trust estimates that ten million people in the UK are living with the disease, a third of them with aura. The hope is that the project will help not only migraineurs but their family, friends and loved ones to better understand their symptoms.
