This image has been edited on Photoshop. I used my initial photo shoot of the mental patient to create a composite image of a girl having a mental breakdown. Each figure was shot separately and represents the terror felt by patients. The appalling use of electric shock therapy and torture must have been horrific for the patients. I wanted the image below to represent the frustration felt by the patients at these homes.

The photograph I have chosen to write about is called ‘Her Possession’, which has been produced by Miss Aniela in 2009. The image comes from the movement of surrealism I think this because the image is not realistic and therefore, appears to be surreal. The image portrays the idea of ‘paranormal’ and distress.

The photograph has been shot in an abandoned mental hospital, so the walls in the background are dirty and peeling causing the room to look damp and uncared for. The floor is also full of rubble which has possibly fallen from the ceiling above leaving the viewer to assume the room is unstable. The door is wide open showing another doorway leading into a similar plain room, suspected to be bare like the one in the picture. In the foreground is the figure of a woman in a baby’s cot with a teddy bear, which is the focal point.  The composition is simple because the main focus is central to the image. The bottom half of the image is straightforward, the floor is dark making the cot seem static. These elements combined make the image appear unsettled.


The piece is photographed using a canon, it appears that Aniela has used a slow shutter speed to capture the flicking of the hair and afterwards, used Photoshop to composite in the extra pair of hands on the side of the cot to make it come across as more sinister. The light appears to be coming from the left hand side at the far of the room behind the figure, you can tell because the model’s face is partially lit and the back corner of the room is highlighted, so the image looks more dramatic. The lighting has made the image high contrast with dark tones contrasted with stark highlights.

I think this represents the torture and insanity of how mental patients were treated during the Victorian era, the cot reflects how they were vulnerable like children, and compared to the baron room it seems intimidating. ‘Her Possession’ signifies that the patients felt trapped and lonely within the four walls of the blank room.



I choose to write about this photograph because it inspired me to focus on the mental patients and their thoughts and feelings; the image conjures up the emotions of disturbance because the figure appears traumatised. I am inspired by this work because it’s very expressive and everybody can have different opinions of what it implies, therefore, I have been inspired to experiment by situating my model flicking her hair into another photograph I have taken of Denbigh Mental Asylum, I want to capture the movement and drama in the figure. I will do this by getting my model to move around dramatically whilst I shoot in low light using continuous shutter speed.