Metanoia
Paper: Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl 285 grm
Patients are photographed in an austere, decaying mental hospital. Sometimes they are solid, filling the image; sometimes the architecture looms and dwarfs lone, bent figures. They are restless, often looking away, self-absorbed – but occasionally someone turns to the camera to smile or perform. The figures in these careful compositions are more important than their surroundings, which are bleached of colours. There is a heavy feeling of waiting, almost like looking at actors waiting to go on stage.
Some have been abandoned by families who fear the stigma of being genetically associated with the mentally handicapped. Before laws passed in 2009, patients could be sent here without proper medical assessment, and with no identification. In an increasingly individualised society a diminished community cannot care for the needy at home, but the conditions in the hospital are also clearly inadequate.
Angles are distorted and people recline on painterly patterned fabrics. The ageing of the images and picking out of patterns or textures makes the marginalised slightly less painful to look at. This beautification also dignifies, and their gestures of sorrow are universal.
Yasmine Allam
