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Taken from an assignment on the photo course I'm no longer on.
A colleague started taking some time off work. Whilst talking to him he revealed he was stressed, depressed, seeking and taking medication to combat the black dog, as he called it. Phrases from our conversations stuck and I wrote them down in my notebook. We spoke about black dog, he mentioned Churchill but I found it came from Samuel Johnson.
Samuel Johnson referred to it when discussing his own melancholia. In a letter to Mrs Thrale in 1783 he writes: "The black dog I hope always to resist, and in time to drive, though I am deprived of almost all those that used to help me…When I rise my breakfast is solitary, the black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he continues barking, except that Dr Brocklesby for a little keeps him at a distance…Night comes at last, and some hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from a habitation like this?"
From a writing competition for the Black Dog Insitute, I found: The Dog bides its time. It’s an uneven attendant. Its absences are welcomed, but you know it’ll be back. Often now, its return catches you by surprise, and the creeping suspicion grows that the visits will never end. Lighten up, you urge yourself; manage the melancholy. Management is the key, you emphasise, almost believing it.
For now, the Black Dog comes. Never whistled, never welcome.
I'd sit with my colleague just having conversations, listening, sharing things I'd found.
Revisiting the phrases, I thought about using photography to describe some of the conversations we had, putting myself into the situation, using phrases he used, trying to describe feelings with images.
We had conversations about him being damaged, how the dog damages you, which made me think about damaging the images in some way. After printing, some were clawed by our dog, or torn then re photographed.
These are a few of the full set, some are shot bright like the last, some dark to reflect the light and dark moments. They are currently boxed, put away, memories stored. It's taken a year for me to share some of these. My colleague is no longer with us.
A colleague started taking some time off work. Whilst talking to him he revealed he was stressed, depressed, seeking and taking medication to combat the black dog, as he called it. Phrases from our conversations stuck and I wrote them down in my notebook. We spoke about black dog, he mentioned Churchill but I found it came from Samuel Johnson.
Samuel Johnson referred to it when discussing his own melancholia. In a letter to Mrs Thrale in 1783 he writes: "The black dog I hope always to resist, and in time to drive, though I am deprived of almost all those that used to help me…When I rise my breakfast is solitary, the black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he continues barking, except that Dr Brocklesby for a little keeps him at a distance…Night comes at last, and some hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from a habitation like this?"
From a writing competition for the Black Dog Insitute, I found: The Dog bides its time. It’s an uneven attendant. Its absences are welcomed, but you know it’ll be back. Often now, its return catches you by surprise, and the creeping suspicion grows that the visits will never end. Lighten up, you urge yourself; manage the melancholy. Management is the key, you emphasise, almost believing it.
For now, the Black Dog comes. Never whistled, never welcome.
I'd sit with my colleague just having conversations, listening, sharing things I'd found.
Revisiting the phrases, I thought about using photography to describe some of the conversations we had, putting myself into the situation, using phrases he used, trying to describe feelings with images.
We had conversations about him being damaged, how the dog damages you, which made me think about damaging the images in some way. After printing, some were clawed by our dog, or torn then re photographed.
These are a few of the full set, some are shot bright like the last, some dark to reflect the light and dark moments. They are currently boxed, put away, memories stored. It's taken a year for me to share some of these. My colleague is no longer with us.
