My work this semester has been to show human expression and emotion through photography. In an age where there is still stigma around mental health I think it is important to have art that can be representative of emotional states that many people may be going through and can relate to by observing. I have found in my personal life that these types of photographs that are representative of themes that may surround difficult or harsher emotional realities or subjects to be quite helpful for my own mental health journey.

For this particular photo story I was inspired by the photographer Alon Shastel who takes fashion photography. His particular photo collection that inspired mine is “The Quiet Hours” where he takes various photos of these girls surrounded by nature and many of them holding or eating fruit or flowers. There are undertones of the Adam and Eve story that I could see from my first glances at these photos because of the sexual nature of their clothing and the general nature that surrounds all of the subjects of these photos that I could imagine Eve in particular in these photos.

My story is what I like to call “Forbidden Fruit” that touches on the idea of sin (particularly original sin with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit). This photo story shows the journey of being taunted by the sin and then indulging in it through the absorption of the fruit and where that sin could lead to whether that is allowing it to consume you or accepting that sin is not real, but in fact another everyday action as simple as eating a piece of fruit.