3rd place
bronze star award
Gabriel Isak
sweden 
title
The Blue Journey
I began exploring photography in 2007; around the same time I began to face depression. Photography allowed me to escape into a different world, the once which I was creating, a place and a story that was led by me, not that I was led by. But after a few months, I fell deep into the arms of depression and lost all the passion for the medium, had no urge to live anymore and wouldn’t pick up the camera until seven years later, when I had recovered from the depression.
At this time in 2014, when I had finally won the war against my mental illness, I decided to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Photography, as a way to force myself into a mode of creation and follow my dreams to become a photographer. Immediately I began to unconsciously explore the theme of depression within my work. Everything that I created reflected back on the years I was living with depression while being inspired by psychology, surrealism and the Scandinavian landscapes that I grew up around.
That’s how ‘The Blue Journey’ was born, unconsciously from my mind as a way to put an ending to the years I lived with my mental illness, and for my inner self to express what it was like to live in that dark, foggy and blue world. I also want this project to shine a light on mental illness and allow the spectators to place themselves within the sceneries portrayed and experience the different emotions of the solitary subjects living in the world of depression.
back to gallery
entry description
In ‘The Blue Journey’ I am presenting a project that is inspired by the seven years I went through depression, where I’m depicting the internal blue world of living with this mental illness.I began exploring photography in 2007; around the same time I began to face depression. Photography allowed me to escape into a different world, the once which I was creating, a place and a story that was led by me, not that I was led by. But after a few months, I fell deep into the arms of depression and lost all the passion for the medium, had no urge to live anymore and wouldn’t pick up the camera until seven years later, when I had recovered from the depression.
At this time in 2014, when I had finally won the war against my mental illness, I decided to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Photography, as a way to force myself into a mode of creation and follow my dreams to become a photographer. Immediately I began to unconsciously explore the theme of depression within my work. Everything that I created reflected back on the years I was living with depression while being inspired by psychology, surrealism and the Scandinavian landscapes that I grew up around.
That’s how ‘The Blue Journey’ was born, unconsciously from my mind as a way to put an ending to the years I lived with my mental illness, and for my inner self to express what it was like to live in that dark, foggy and blue world. I also want this project to shine a light on mental illness and allow the spectators to place themselves within the sceneries portrayed and experience the different emotions of the solitary subjects living in the world of depression.
back to gallery
