Evocation of Anxiety through a Student

The 'Evocation of Anxiety through a Student' was the midterm project for the Media Productions course CMDP 3700: Photographic Practices in the Media Productions major.

When composing this series of photos, we had the freedom to go in any direction we wanted. For my midterm project, I chose to explore the topic of anxiety and stress. Specifically, the anxiety of a college student battling the multiple responsibilities we often have, if that is cleanliness, homework and studying, jobs, etc.

I chose to photograph my friends showing two different forms of anxiety. The beginning set of photos show one of my friends as he is coming home from his own job. These were to show the stress felt and shown as he arrives home from a long day of work. The next set of photos shows him struggling with a bundle of scrambled notes as he anxiously studies, displaying that even once we are done with our jobs or day to day work, there still is more to get done. This was meant to show a common stress amongst college students that is studying in the midst of our many stresses.

The end set of photos shows him finally as he gets to his room to lay down, yet the cleanliness of his room shows the amount of anxiety he has been under. Our rooms often tell a much deeper story of our emotions and having an overly messy room is a great representation of allowing our anxiety to take over.

The rest of my images go to show the opposite end of this spectrum of anxiety. As some people’s anxiety manifests in the form of mess, others often feel the opposite, which I would characterize as “stress cleaning”. Stress cleaning is also a common manifestation of anxiety and I chose to photograph my other friend Ethan cleaning his home, as these photos are much more neat and less cluttered as the previous set of images.

Anxiety and stress vary widely and differently for everyone, but through these photos I chose to explore opposite ends of the spectrum on how we all battle with anxiety in different ways.