Hysteria

The name ‘hysteria’ is derived from the Greek words ‘hystera’ which means ‘uterus’ as well as  ‘hysterikos’ meaning ‘suffering of the womb.’

Greek thinkers (like Hippocrates and Plato) believed that when a woman experienced delirium, excessive emotion, and lack of self-control, it was due to her uterus moving freely throughout her body and thus having negative effects on her mental wellbeing. Plato believed that when the womb was empty for too long after puberty, it became distressed and disturbed and started to move around the body out of irritation. This gave the impression that women should be quick to occupy the womb – they were told that they needed to be getting married and carrying babies to anchor the womb, explaining why women were expected to fall pregnant at such a young age. The threat of sexual deprivation and barrenness sending women crazy spurred the myth of the wandering womb, solidifying women’s position as being strictly child-bearers. It also solidified excessive emotion as a feminine emotional condition, and caused women to become the ’emotional gender’. 

On the other hand, male hysteria, as the name indicates, is ‘hysteria for men’. Interestingly, symptoms included extreme behaviour, uncertainty in actions and motives, inclination to substances, for example, alcohol, and neurosis. The ‘disease’ was closely linked to gender stereotypes when men failed to act ‘like men were expected to act’, another feature of the patriarchal and misogynistic views that promoted hysteria.

Link to Project

My project is about femininity and mental illness, so I believe hysteria is a topic that links in perfectly with both. I want my photographs to show hysteria, showing it in a stereotypical and disturbing manner, utilising a slow shutter speed of 1/4 or 1/5 to create movement within the images, portraying hysteria as something that can’t be controlled. My inspiration, Francesca Woodman, was an individual who showed her struggles with mental health through her work. I think her work was an indirect portrayal of hysteria, all her photos having an unnerving feeling to them.

Hysteria’s dual nature makes it a perfect example of both oppression and liberation: although hysteria in itself is a symptom of patriarchal pressures, hysterical symptoms are also an implication of an individual’s increased awareness of patriarchy. This is a theme I want to portray through my photographs.

For my project, I want to explore femininity and mental health, through a mix of portraits and landscapes. Photography has often been an exploration of ones mental health, and many artists have linked the two important aspects of the life resulting in powerful photographs. Many use photography as a coping mechanism, helping them face their everyday issues. Femininity is something every individual explores during their life, sometimes without noticing it. I think femininity and mental health has a big link since women are stereotyped as being weak and vulnerable by society. For instance, hysteria was attributed to women for thousands of years: even being derived from the Greek word ‘hystera’ which means uterus. Even major psychologists such as Freud considered hysteria as an exclusively female disease, despite it already being proven incorrect. It was originally believed that men could not suffer from hysteria because of their lack of uterus. This belief was discarded in the 17th century when discourse identified the brain or mind, and not reproductive organs, as the root cause of hysteria. I think hysteria would be interesting to explore through self- portraits and landscapes (for example of St. Saviour’s hospital; the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum and other abandoned buildings) as it incorporates mental health and femininity well. I think it links in well with the exam theme’s OBSERVE, SEEK, CHALLENGE since it will be an exploration of a significant historical aspect of femininity, I could observe how hysteria is portrayed and seek to find out how to portray it myself. I want to challenge the stereotypes of mental illness and femininity, as well as the historical relevance of hysteria, and challenge ‘typical’ feminine photography.

True femininity is about emotions and feelings, not just the appearance of an individual. For me, these themes are an opportunity to discover and research femininity, feminism and mental health, and create my own response to it, questioning different point of views and other artists’ work. Moreover, mental health is a big aspect of every woman’s life, and I think it is important to explore this, whether through photography or another medium. The most significant and important (in my opinion) female photographer who explored femininity and mental health is Francesca Woodman, who captured black and white self portraits, expressing her emotions which she couldn’t put into words. She was very young when she passed, and I believe this makes her work even more powerful and personal. She is my main inspiration for this project, and I find her use of abandoned- looking backdrops, slow shutter speed, uncoloured images very effective in portraying her emotions.

I want this project to end in the creation of a photobook- since I think it would tie my project in well together, creating a sequence of abstract portraits which focus more on emotion and the metaphors of femininity instead of striking feminine photos. After her death in 1981, Woodman’s photos weren’t disclosed to the public for many years after. I think the lack of uniformity in her work adds to the overall theme of mental health, but I believe my work will look most successful as a photobook. I will begin my study by researching hysteria and using Woodman as a inspiration for my photoshoots, looking for places around Jersey that would be suitable for my project. I like how Woodman also uses props (whether it is the space around her or specific objects) in ways that adds a even deeper mood to each photograph, as well as making each image unique.

Observe, Seek and Challenge

Exam Paper- Pages 4 & 5

I highlighted quotes I believe are significant as well as adding my own notes about the ideas I have for my project. One of the quotes: ‘the human desire to seek and explore the unknown’ was in my eyes a perfect portrayal of the topic- since I would like my project to be a exploration of something that is different to my everyday life. Moreover, ‘the diversity, complexity and geometry of nature’ I found was also interesting, as it puts into perspective the many different layers of nature photography. Another quote ‘Artists frequently use metaphors in their work to disguise the messages; some are blatant some are obscure’, implies how the use of metaphors and indirectness is important in photography, since it what causes each project to be individual. The theme description also outlined many points of interest, such as nature, society and landscapes, which proved to be useful when developing my own ideas.

I thought of three main ideas for my project: stereotypes (specifically surrounding gender), abandoned (historical) locations and animals (specifically cats).

Stereotypes are one of the biggest flaws our are society and I think it would be interesting to create a project that challenges gender stereotypes and seeks out why and how they are created. I could take self portraits for this project- linking my work with artists such as Claude Cahun and Francesca Woodman. I would also link this with places- abandoned as Woodman tends to use as her background. I could create portraits as well as landscapes- the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum being a place I could focus on. Woodman focused on femininity as well as mental health, which could be something I could explore. I would use a slow a shutter speed to create blurry and multiple exposure photographs, in Woodman’s style.

Next, Jersey is a island with many different interesting places, that are very significant in relation to it’s history. It would be interesting to develop a project that investigates such places (like the war tunnels, the abandoned Jersey Lunatic Asylum in St. Saviour, etc.) and challenge why their existence- why they were created but also closed, left, abandoned). A photographer which would inspire me for this theme is Matt Ememett- his portfolio Forgotten Heritage Photography being pictures of abandoned places- capturing their diverse beauty.

Lastly, my final idea would be about animals; their day to day survival, our impact on them. I would like to capture detailed, micro photographs of them that captures their beauty and the complexity of their life. A more specific idea would be to focus on cats (found around Jersey) and it would focus on how they view our world/ their point of view, how they observe, seek and challenge the world. I could include photographs of cats themselves as well as landscapes from low angles, exploring how cats physically see our island. I could create dreamy, detailed images- romanticising their life or I could take harsh images- perhaps in black and white, capturing the reality of their lives. Walter George Chandoha is a inspiration as throughout his career he photographed cats over and over again, capturing beautiful pictures of the animals. Jo Stephen takes beautiful, dreamlike landscape photos and he could be my inspiration for the style of my photographs. Another photographer, Ekin Küçük, created a project called Cat Fever which captures black and white pictures of cats in their natural environment (the streets of a busy city), capturing the harsh reality of cat’s lives.

Mind Maps

Moodboards