I really enjoy working in Photoshop. It allows me to be creative with my photographs. I have a project for a class that I am currently working on. The design kind of came together as I worked on it, since I wasn't entirely certain what I should do for this project. The idea was to present three images with a discernible theme that could be tied together with a synopsis describing the works.

I settled on titling my theme "Mental Illnesses." The idea was to convey a mental illness through a series of photographs digitally manipulated in Photoshop. The first item I finished is entitled "Schizophrenia." The plan was to show the difficult and disconnected world that schizophrenics live in. The subject's mouth has been removed, portraying the difficulty or lack of speech that often is a symptom of schizophrenia. The background of shapes are illustrating disorder and hallucinations or delusions. The soft, abstract swirls surrounding the subject are supposed to be representing the "voices" that schizophrenics often have. The subject is holding his head while giving off a very apathetic appearance.

I thought it might be ironic if I included turquoise as the only color in my photos. I read up on what the color turquoise represents, and according to the all-knowing Internet, turquoise means peace and calm. In a mental illness, especially one like schizophrenia, many things can be confusing and disorienting for the individual.

I will be posting the other two photos when they have been completed.