Artist and writer Aleksandra Stone came to American as a refugee in 1998. She fled from the war-torn nation of former Yugoslavia and qucikly became a participant in the "American Dream." Despite success in America, Stone still found herself struggling. She says, "I found that even with a roof over my head and a university education, life did not feel like a dream. Plagued by perpetual self-scrutiny and long-term depression, I began to channel my experiences into photography."
Since then, she has worked to expose the prevalence of mental disorders by illustrating her own experience with depression through self-portraits. According to Stone, "My desire for my self-portraits is to offer a candid and intimate glimpse into my daily struggles with guilt, anxiety, fear, and melancholy."
As anyone with depression or anxiety knows, it is often difficult to explain the experience through words. Stone found a way to share her struggle through photographs. She told The Huffington Post, "Over the years, my presence behind my camera gave voice to a narrative for which I otherwise lacked words. What began as a therapeutic outlet evolved into a candid self-study and the development of a sizable body of work depicting an intimate glimpse into life’s daily struggles with anxiety and adjustments to life in America."
She does a beautiful job. Take a look.
All images via Aleksandra Stone
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