PHOTOGRAPHER Tracy Anderson was praised yesterday by See Me, Scotland’s programme for ending mental health discrimination, for an imaginative and original project which aims to end mental health stigma.

Anderson, a City of Glasgow College graduate, aims to help those affected by mental illness with her new photography collection The Darkness Within.

Lisa Cohen, See Me’s national programme manager, said: “Creative work such as this helps to tackle stigma by opening mental health up to a new audience.”

She added: “People with mental health problems can face discrimination which limits their lives. This photography tackles stigmatising attitudes, showing the amazing work that people can do. We are always keen to share this type of work as it is vital to empower people who want to use their skills to challenge the stigma around mental health”.

Anderson, 31, who is affected by anxiety and depression, is originally from Glasgow but now lives in Cumbernauld with her husband Thomas and their nine-year-old daughter Kimberly, who is already taking after her mum and showing a keen interest in photography.

Anderson said: “I’ve always been creative. I did a Higher in Art and Design at North Glasgow College after I left school which was great. But after that, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I moved out, got a job as an office assistant and put college on the backburner.

“Photography didn’t come into my life until much later, until I was in my twenties. During that time, I was confined to my house because my anxiety was so bad and I couldn’t work. My little girl was starting school that year so I started researching courses at local colleges since I would have some spare time when Kimberly was at school. I thought the photography courses looked really interesting.

“When I started, I didn’t think it would go anywhere. I felt like quitting so many times. But I just fell in love with photography and pushed myself to do more.

“When I was 28, I went to City of Glasgow College and started The Darkness Within project in my degree year. Since the topic was so complex, I decided to focus on myself and, for a while, I didn’t think that was such a good idea. It sort of made me feel worse because it was really personal. So instead, I went down the route of using metaphors in my photography to portray mental illness in an abstract way.

“Some of the images from the project are really obscure, you almost can’t tell what some of the images are, which I quite like because it represents how I felt at the time. I knew I felt bad but I didn’t know why. One of my favourite images in the collection is of a twisted tree. It’s surrounded by all these other normal trees but this one was really distorted and it really stands out because it is so different and that’s how I feel sometimes.

“I used to hide behind a mask. I would do my hair and makeup and wear nice clothes and people used to say to me ‘but you don’t look ill.’ And that really annoyed me because I’d think ‘Well, what is mental illness supposed to look like?’ Mental illness doesn’t discriminate, it can affect anyone.

“When trying to promote my photography, I found a great website called Broken Light: A Photography Collective that showcases images based on mental illness. On the website, people have left comments on my images and it really means a lot to get such positive feedback because if I can help even one person, then it’s all been worthwhile. I, myself, have always been a worrier but that went to the extreme in my twenties and I was finally diagnosed with depression when I was 25. I felt much better after getting the diagnosis and felt a sense of relief that I could finally start to understand how I was feeling and talk about it.

“The Darkness Within was emotionally draining but overall I am really happy with it. When I start a project, I sometimes lack confidence but when I saw the collection all finished and in a wee booklet, I felt really proud and I’m so glad I did it.

“I hope my project shows others with mental illness that they’re not alone. I used to think that but it’s not the case. You’re never alone.”

Anderson plans to dive back into photography this summer and is contemplating putting on an exhibition to showcase The Darkness Within.