State of Mind Photography and Storytelling Exhibit

If you are interested in having the State of Mind at your event, please contact lorna.dancey@hotmail.com for prices.  

Two years ago I started a ‘Scars’ project. I interviewed and photographed people based on internal scars (mental health) and external scars (Breast cancer, burn survivors etc).  My passion and inspiration for this project was to showcase we all have a story and if people could share ‘their’ story, we could challenge ourselves on the judgment we place on each other by inspiring hope, courage and change.  I feel we are all aware of the problems but as a society, we need to focus on the change and because of that I created a project called ‘State of Mind’.  I discovered from interviewing many people regarding their internal scars, (mental health), I needed to create a project based on sharing stories of how mental health impacts all of us.   I feel mental health is at the heart of everything we go through yet is has the least amount of compassion and the most judgment attached to it. 

I wanted to do more than post these stories on social media, I want to show the viewer how mental health impacts all of us and there is no discrimination therefore I created a freestanding photography and storytelling exhibit, which consists of 6 – 7ft tall x 2 feet wide cubed shaped towers which features 8 people and their stories on each tower. 

These stories are of depression, anxiety, addiction, postpartum depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, domestic violence, homelessness, self harm, grief, schizophrenia to name just a few.  The focus of the State of mind is to help others realize there is healing and hope and to create conversations necessary to inspire change. 

The State of Mind photography exhibit has been hosted by:  

KPMG Edmonton, Edmonton Tower ,Manulife Place, Enbridge Centre, Winspear Centre - Crescendo Event, Edmonton City Hall , Fort Saskatchewan City Hall, Stand by me event as well as the Invisible but real event.