Lauren M. Whaley, CHCF Center for Health Reporting
A Stanislaus County woman who volunteered to be photographed in a series "Faces of Mental Illness." (Lauren M. Whaley/CHCF Center for Health Reporting)
I assembled my makeshift photo studio in a windowless office just big enough for a desk and two chairs. Wax paper covered the Home Depot work lights. Electrical tape held up the white sheet I had borrowed from my Modesto hotel room.
My subjects walked in one at a time and sat in the chair in front of the sheet, facing my camera and tripod.
Name. Age. Residence. Mental illness diagnosis. They rattled off their stats.
They sat for photographs and told me their stories. One lost a father when she was seven-years-old to a bullet from a bouncer at a bar. Another served five years in prison. Another met his girlfriend through his treatment and therapy.
Each had been diagnosed with a mental illness, ranging from mild depression to schizophrenia. And they each found community and help within the walls of the Stanislaus chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
The 12 black and white portraits ended up being one of the most popular galleries ever on the Modesto Bee website. The pictures in the print edition spanned two pages.
And they almost didn’t happen. Continue reading
