This is Helen Stephens. I knew Helen back in my home, the Isle of Wight, and was thrilled when I bumped into her along Cheltenham high street one morning. She was here visiting her father. She has lived here the greater part of her life. Helen is a single mother of a 15 year old girl, and an 18 year old boy. She has manic depression and a severe nerve and back problem which restricts her everyday movement greatly. I would like to tell you her story through my pictures, as I will do this with others living in cheltenham. I met Helen on an average day for her, bringing chocolates and croissants to, if you like, say a silent thank you for letting me stalk her on her normal day. She spent most of her time sitting in her chair wincing every so often in pain and describing to me her mixture of medication prescribed to her to numb her pain. 'Zapain, diazipam, dihydrocodiene...' the list went on. At first she was frantic describing these pills as I could understand how she felt with my re-occuring back pain also. 'Those doctors just don't understand, being in pain constantly is going to make you fucking depressed' from this she went quite calm as we made tea she sat gazing out the window whilst her friend sat opposite her talking to her about news headlines he seemed to disagree with. Then you will see further on her complete change from this to a happy laughter. The photos I have taken I hope will help communicate how her mood changes.
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| The establishing portrait will run throughout this assignment in my work, to show you like a headline in a paper, what the story is about. |
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| She relaxed in her chair as her friend talked about his views. |
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| Her son Kabe came home from college and sat directly opposite her and began to 'banter' both her and myself, explaining it was awkward with a camera in the room, I found it quite fun. |
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| This shot of the living room I liked. It's cluttered state I could relate to. |
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| After cracking a not so funny, quite serious joke about her back and depression being interlinked, she laughed with a degree of pain. |
