Encounters

This collaborative body of work was created by a group of young people, suffering varied levels of mental health issues. Four participants agreed to become members of a co-created project. The project asked them to become photographers and document their life with their individual issues as well as taking part in a series of assisted self-portraits. The work challenges typical photographic authorship, focusing on the complex relationship between self-representation and empowerment. The world that each participant presents is both small and intimate, but the perception of it is detailed, accepting and complex. Mary positions herself within the project as an advocate for knowledge for education and understanding of photography's capability to implement social change. Mary is able to narrate the role of collaborative photography within contemporary photographic practice.