Date of Award

3-14-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

First Advisor

Jason Reblando

Abstract

With Love & Rage: A Self Portrait of Borderline Personality Disorder analyses how I use the act of taking self portraits to materialize emotions through photographic means. When I experience intense emotions symptomatic of borderline personality disorder, positive or negative, their onset is routinely sudden and overwhelming; what follows is an impulsive desire to photograph myself to archive the present before the emotions shift or return to stable levels.The Rage images document the emotional aftermath of a sexual assault and rape; anger and depression, by using a red-scale film to emphasize both confrontational and dissociated body language. The Love images record a state of hypersexuality that is subdued through how I use the camera to frame the images, resulting in a reclamation of agency over my body and sexuality in a positive way. This thesis examines both series of images, born from my lived experiences, through a clinical understanding of borderline personality disorder and artistic research into self portraiture and agency.

Comments

Imported from Eckstine_ilstu_0092N_12572.pdf

DOI

https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2024.20240618063948764390.999975

Page Count

75

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