A Manchester based artist has one of the categories in the Wellcome Photograph Prize winners for 2020.
Holding on to Daddy by Benji Reid, is a “love note” to his daughter. It shows him as a ‘broken astronaut’ tethered to her, and the simple, comforting fact of her presence keeps him in the real world.
Benji Reid suffers from long bouts of depression, and after a particularly difficult period he created this image as a ‘love note’ to his daughter for being there in his time of need. Both of them are engaged in acts of escapism – her mundanely, through her phone, and him fantastically, as a ‘broken astronaut’, floating up into the air. But he’s tethered to her, and the simple, comforting fact of her presence keeps him in the real world.
Arseniy Neskhodimov was announced as the overall winner of the Wellcome Photography Prize 2020, with his series of five images entitled Prozac. He is also the winner of the Mental Health – series category. He receives £15,000, plus £1,250 for his category win.
Returning for its second year, the prize tells provocative visual stories about the health challenges of our time, combatting health taboos, bringing complex health issues to life and showing how health affects society.
With a special focus in 2020 on mental health, an issue that has become even more urgent due to COVID-19, the prize aims to challenge preconceptions and stereotypes, and provide a more authentic look at peoples’ experiences of mental health.
Neskhodimov, born in 1981 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is a photographer who lives in Moscow, Russia. Prozac explores Neskhodimov’s experience with depression, which he has been prone to since the age of 20, and continues his ongoing conceptual work around visual identity.
Finding antidepressants unhelpful, he decided to get out of Moscow and find somewhere he could be happier, chronicling his experiences at his parents’ house and in Sharm El Sheik, but the depression followed him. He now thinks depression has to be understood and treated as an illness, although he isn’t sure how.
The winners were announced in a digital event, hosted by Dame Cilla Snowball, featuring filmed contributions from the photographers.
Miranda Wolpert, Head of Mental Health Priority Area at Wellcome, said:
“This incredibly powerful series highlights the complexity of both emotions and coping mechanisms underpinning each person’s journey with their mental health. Neskhodimov’s visually arresting series manages to convey both the ongoing pain he experiences and the strategies to cope – including humour and creativity. More nuanced representations of individual’s experience of mental ill-health and their varied ways of coping help start conversations about what can help and hold back different individuals. Only by considering the interplay between individual context and proffered solutions can scientists discover the next generation of treatments and approaches that will enable fewer people to be held back in life by mental health problems.”
Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome and Wellcome Photography Prize Chair, said:
“Unfortunately mental health is still in the shadows despite being a subject that we’re all touched by, whether directly or through our friends and family. When subjects stay in the shadows they remain stigmatised, but by bringing them out into the open this power is lost, helping reinforce that it is normal and we can talk about it.”
