If you're in the Bristol area between 5th and 28th January, this exhibition at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft, deserves your support. It is organised by Bonnie Thomas – and this is what she told us about it.
“My name is Bonnie and I am running a project that aims to raise awareness of ME/CFS. It is a photographic project involving 10 people whom have had or are still experiencing this illness (myself included).
“The project is called ‘Behind Perceptions' it will exhibit two pictures of each of the individuals involved. One a normal portrait, the other an artistic portrait using many different techniques (body paint/prosthetics/photoshop).
“The aim, to express a strong emotion or physical symptom experienced but unseen by sufferers such as fear (using photoshopped shadows) or being imprisoned in the body (a depiction of myself holding a smaller self in a glass box!).
“This will hopefully get behind people's perception of what disability looks like & generate more sympathy for the illness.”
Bonnie will be inviting visitors to the exhibition to make a donation to The ME Association. http://www.hamiltonhouse.org/behind-perception/
Thank you Bonnie for this innovative project. I hope it does very well to raise awareness and help to dispel misperceptions of this devastating illness.
I have taken part in another project by the Photographic Journalist and PhD student Juliet Chenery-Robson, who has a daughter with ME. You and other interested parties may wish to visit her web site.
Annx